


Star Filled Dreams

by TheAwesomeMatag



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean Lance (Voltron), Because i love me some good angst, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Follows canon plot mostly, Galra Keith, Keith is so gay, Lance doesnt remember a whole lot, Lance is frustrated, M/M, Some langst, they/them pronouns for Pidge
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-05
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2018-08-29 06:30:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 20,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8478856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAwesomeMatag/pseuds/TheAwesomeMatag
Summary: Lance has a normal life. Or so he thought. Right up until he joined the Garrison, he was perfectly normal. Then he started having dreams of people and worlds he's never seen.Now he's traveling across the galaxy with two aliens who seem very familiar, four people who are supposed to be the Paladins of Voltron with him, and a giant blue robotic lion who seems to know who he is.Anyway, he's just happy to have new friends and people to call his family, despite the weird visions and dreams he's STILL having.





	1. Dreams Suck

**Author's Note:**

> This is a rewrite of When You Dream of Me. That work will be deleted after I get a few chapters of this up.
> 
> Post this was inspired by can be found here: http://dancing-rainbow-llamas.tumblr.com/post/151898769098/goddamit-lance-why-are-you-so-pretty-ง-ง

When Lance left home to join the Garrison, he didn't expect anything extraordinary to happen. And nothing really did happen. Until three months in.

 

It was a strange dream. Or at least what he could remember of the dream. He remembered a beautiful field of flowers, surrounded by mountains. And a girl with soft, flowing white hair and a kind smile.

 

Lance told his roommate Hunk about it the next morning, and asked what he thought it meant. Hunk just shrugged and continued to get ready for class.

 

The next time Lance had a dream, he remembered most of it the next morning. A lady was yelling something at him. He couldn't see her face, only her mouth. And she was pushing him towards what looked like a ship. A soft whisper in his ear and everything went black.

 

He was almost late to class the next morning.

 

~~

 

When Lance met Keith, it was because he almost hit him. Lance had been talking to Hunk outside one of the classrooms when Keith walked out. Lance's arm almost hit him in the face. Lance briefly glanced at Keith when he hit his arm away and told him to “watch it!”

 

Lance dreamt of purple aliens that night.

 

~~

 

Lance dreamed of the purple aliens once more and of the girl twice more, before Hunk started taking notes on his dreams.

 

The dreams of aliens and strange planets only made him want to get out into space more. So when Keith was made a fighter pilot and Lance was not, he unofficially declared Keith his rival. Of course the only people who knew of said rivalry were Lance and Hunk.

 

~~

 

Five months into the year and two months after he started having the dreams, Lance took up drawing them. The drawings were horrible to start with, but he kept drawing. And more often than not, he was caught drawing in class.

 

He drew so often that he ran out of paper and ended up sneaking out to steal more from the main supply closet.

 

Because he was more focused on his drawings than his classes, his grades slipped and he was almost kicked out of the Garrison by the end of his first year. Fortunately he passed, but just barely.

 

His mama did scold him something fierce when he got home though, yelling at him in a mix of English and Spanish.

 

When she found out why his grades were suffering, she hit him on the back of his head and told him “don't let it happen again!” before smiling softly at him.

 

He received a set of sketchbooks and drawing pencils for his birthday, right before he left for the Garrison again.

 

Strangely enough, the dreams had stopped all together when he was home. But now that he was back at the Garrison, the dreams started again, more vivid and clear. Not as clear as Lance would like them; he still couldn't make out faces or hear words spoken.

 

A lot of the unclear faces brought a warm feeling in his chest, much like the feeling he got when he saw his mom. However, one face, an unclear face of one of the purple aliens, brought a weird feeling in his chest. Warm but not in a familial way. Whatever words they said made Lance blush and become flustered.

 

What if these were more than dreams? What if these aliens actually existed? He had to know. His drive to become a fighter pilot and get into space was back in full force. He rose to the top of his cargo pilot class, but not quite good enough for fighter class. He grew frustrated and took his frustrations out by sneaking out and going to the nearest town, more often than not, getting caught on his way back in the next morning.

 

Iverson had it out for him after he caught Lance one to many times, and was determined to watch him fail.

 

Christmas brought new sketchbooks from his mama and his drawings improved to the point where they almost looked like photographs. Unfinished because he could never see the faces clearly. A fact that frustrated him more than not making fighter class. His scenery drawings increased in number, while his portrait drawings remained in a half filled sketchbook between his mattress and the bed frame.

 

~~

 

_Lance was standing in large field of strange flowers head never seen. A man with a white beard and a woman with soft caramel colored hair where there, as well as the girl with white hair and a soft smile. However she looked younger than before. Like eleven or twelve._

_There was a purple stain on her white dress and she was crying. The man and woman were trying to comfort her. Lance put his hand on her shoulder and said something. He couldn't hear himself or others still. But whatever he said must have worked because the girl smiled at him and laughed._

Lance woke up the next morning with a smile on his face.

 

~~

 

They rest of Lance's second year passed by uneventfully, and Lance returned home for the summer, happy to be with his family again. He missed the beach by his house and his siblings. He missed spending time with them, rough housing. He missed his mama's cooking and her hugs and couldn't be happier to be home. He was sad when the time came for him to leave in the fall.

 

When Lance returned to the Garrison, he heard the news. Takashi Shirogane, the pilot for the Kerberos mission is going to be coming to the Garrison once he and his crew returned. Lance was ecstatic, Shiro was his hero. Shiro was one of the main reasons Lance wanted to go to the Garrison.

 

Shiro had come to his middle school one year after his first mission was such a success and the Garrison wanted to use him to recruit new students. He talked about the jobs in space and the different programs the Garrison had to offer. The more he talked, the more Lance became enthralled by the possibilities in space.

 

So when halfway through the year, the news came that the Kerberos mission failed because of pilot error and the entire crew was lost, Lance was devastated.

 

Lance had been sitting in the cafeteria with Hunk when it came on the news. Lance could only watch as Keith got up and stormed out.

 

That night Lance dreamed of explosions and a ship crash that left an overwhelming sadness in his heart.

 

~~

 

Keith got into more trouble with the instructors after that. Always causing fights and more than once Lance saw him leave in the middle of the night while Lance was up on the roof to draw or just look at the stars.

 

Keith got caught one night coming back and punched an instructor. He got expelled just before final exams.

 

~~

 

Because Keith was expelled, there was room in the fighter class for a cargo pilot to be moved up.

 

Lance had just barely put his stuff down in his and Hunk’s room before he was racing off to the board to find out if he was moved up. It was more than likely, seeing as he was top of the cargo pilot class last year and the year before and if Hunk wasn't his engineer, he was going to combust.

 

Yes! He was moved up AND Hunk was his engineer, and his communications specialist was...

 

“Who the heck is Pidge Gunderson?”

 

“Right here.”

 

Lance turned to see a short guy with light brown hair and large, round glasses.

 

Pidge wasn't to interested in spending time with them and tried to not interact with them at all unless they had to.

  
Well this was going to be a fun year.


	2. The Rise of Voltron Pt. 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of the old chapters and sections of it are going to stay with little to no editing.

_What was going on? Someone was yelling something next to him. He couldn’t quite make it out. He was being pushed somewhere. A ship? Words in a language he didn't recognize were whispered and the world faded to black. He thinks he briefly came to but blackness overtook his vision once again. A flash of cold followed and then he felt nothing._

Lance shot up in bed. The room was dark, the glow of the computer screen casting a dim light on the figure sitting at it.

 

“Hunk? Thought you were going to bed in five minutes. It's-” Lance cast a glance at the digital clock, “-3am.”

 

“Well five minutes turned into five hours.” Hunk shut the computer off, getting up to stretch. “Did you have a dream again?”

 

Lance nodded. “Yeah, I don't know what to make of them.” He sighed. “Go to sleep. We have to be up in three hours for classes.”

 

Lance rolled over, pulling the blankets over his head. When the alarm went off three hours later, Lance had kicked the blankets off and they were now bundled at the end of the bed.

 

Hunk was already awake and just stepping out of the bathroom.

 

“So which dream was it this time?”

 

Lance rubbed the heels of his palms in his eyes, trying to rub the sleep away. “The one with the ship and the lady.”

 

“The one that whispers something to you, right? Was it all the same or was there something different this time?”

 

“Yeah, actually there was. I could hear what she was saying. I couldn't understand her though. She spoke in some weird foreign language.”

 

“Hmm…” Hunk wrote something down on a notepad.

 

The rest of the day went by pretty quick but for Lance, it couldn't have moved any slower. He kept thinking about the most recent dream he had. What had the woman said? And why could he suddenly hear what she was saying? What language was she even speaking? The last question frustrated Lance the most. It didn't sound like any language on Earth. Did that mean she was an alien?

 

It was simulation day so class was even longer than normal. Lance groaned. He just wanted to find a quiet corner and draw. He wanted to finish the drawing of the white haired girl but he couldn't seem to get her smile right. It was supposed to be soft and kind. Her lips curling up ever so slightly at the corners. His drawing looked harsh and crude. The pencil lines looked too sharp and jagged, unlike the soft curve of her lips. Of course it probably will never be finished because he still can't see her face clearly.

 

Lance sighed.

 

“Hey buddy you okay?” Hunk came up beside him.

 

Lance nodded. “Yeah, just tired I guess.”

 

“Well hopefully we won't have to go first today.”

 

“Are you kidding? Iverson loves to pick on us.”

 

“McClain! Don't talk during my lessons! Since you seem to know enough to ignore my lessons, why don't you and your team go first?”

 

Lance frowned as he and his team moved forward. Pidge grumbled under their breath about stupid team members.

 

Everything was going great until they tried to land. An overhanging of ice was coming up on them and Lance swears he would have made it. If the vision hadn't hit him when it did.

 

_Another, different overhanging of ice was coming towards him at an alarming rate. He tried to pull up and avoid it but it was closing in too fast. He yelled something and suddenly he was being pulled out of the chair. The girl he'd been trying to draw sat down and grabbed the controls. She yelled something in the strange language at him before expertly flying them through a series of overhangs and ice spires._

_After landing safely she stood up and turned to him, her face except her mouth was still unclear._

**_“For quiznaks sake ______! You'll never learn to fly at this rate! You need to be more careful!”_ **

_Everything she said was suddenly clear, except one word. What did she say?_

 

“We lost a wing!”

 

_What? They landed already. How could they lose a wing?_

 

A beeping brought Lance out of the vision. Where was he? Oh crap, the simulation! That must be where they lost the wing.

 

“Oh man…”

 

Commander Iverson yelled at them for being a terrible team and Lance spent the rest of the lessons sulking in the back.

 

“Lights out in five! Everyone back to their dorms, now.” A higher up was walking through the halls, telling people to get back to their dorms.

 

Lance peeked around a corner with Hunk.

 

“We shouldn't be doing this,” Hunk muttered in a nervous tone.

 

“You heard Commander Iverson. We need to bond as a team. We're going to grab Pidge, hit the town, loosen up, meet some nice girls-”

 

Hunk interrupted Lance. “I'm just saying this here, right now, on the record. This is a bad idea.”

 

Lance rolled his eyes at him before making a dash for another hallway, Hunk right behind him.

 

“You know, for someone in a space exploration program, you don't have much of a sense of adventure.” Lance crouched down beneath a window where he could see all the higher ups talking.

 

“All of your little “adventures” end up with me in the principal’s office.”

 

Lance gestured to Hunk before crawling beneath the windows. Hunk sighed before following.

 

After evading a guard and jumping out of trash cans, they came upon Pidge’s room. But when Pidge stepped out Lance tackled Hunk around the corner. They watched Pidge run off before stepping back out.

 

Lance raised an eyebrow. “Where is he going?”

 

It was tricky but they managed to follow Pidge up to the roof and silently watched as they set some sort of computer device up.

 

Lance grinned to himself before sneaking up behind Pidge and scaring them. Lance looked closely at Pidge’s device.

 

“Where did you get this stuff? It doesn't look like Garrison tech.”

 

Pidge looked smug. “I built it.”

 

Hunk came up on the other side of Pidge and tried to touch the device. “You built all this?”

 

Pidge smacked him. “Hey stop it!” They looked back at Lance. “With this thing I can scan all the way to the edge of the solar system.”

 

Lance put his hand on his chin and looked between Pidge and the device. “That right? All the way to Kerberos?”

 

Pidge sulked.

 

“You go ballistic every time the instructors bring it up. What's your deal?”

 

Hunk messed with a small satellite dish on the top of the device before Pidge smacked him again. “Second warning Hunk!”

 

“Aw.” Hunk backed away.

 

“Look, Pidge, if we're going to bond as a team, we can't have any secrets.”

 

“Fine. The works as you know it is about to change. The Kerberos mission wasn't lost  because of some malfunction or crew mistake.”

 

Hunk had slowly been sneaking up on the weird computer again when Pidge had turned to talk to Lance. “Stop touching my equipment!”

 

Hunk groaned and fell onto his side.

 

Pidge sighed before turning back to Lance. “So I've been scanning the system and picking up alien radio chatter.”

 

Hunk shot up. “Whoa. What? Aliens?”

 

Lance crossed his arms and frowned and Pidge. “Aliens?”

 

“I'm serious. They keep repeating one word: Voltron.”

 

Lance's jaw tightened as colors flashed in his mind. Black, red, yellow, green, and blue. The blue stuck out to him. Why? Why did he feel like the word Voltron was familiar?

 

Pidge kept talking. “And tonight it's going crazier than I have ever heard it.”

 

Lance raised an eyebrow. “How crazy?”

 

Before Pidge could answer, Iverson’s voice was blaring over the speakers. “Attention students. This is not a drill. We are on lockdown. Security situation Zulu Niner. Repeat: All students are to remain in barracks until further notice.”

 

Hunk stood, looking back towards the building. “What's going on? Is that a meteor?” He pointed at the sky where a large orange ball of fire was barreling towards them. “A very, very big meteor?”

 

Pidge grabbed some binoculars. “It's a ship.”

 

Lance grabbed the binoculars with Pidge still holding on. “Holy crow! I can't believe what I'm seeing! That’s not one of ours!”

 

“No. It's one of theirs.” Pidge watched in fascination.

 

Hunk watched in disbelief. “So wait, there really are aliens out there?”

 

They watched as the ship hurled across the sky and crashed into the desert.

 

Lance felt something go through him at the sight of the ball of flame and smoke that went up.

 

“We gotta see that ship.” Pidge took off across the roof.

 

“Hunk come on!” Lance ran after Pidge.

  
“Oh, this is the worst team building exercise ever.” Hunk pouted before quickly taking off after the duo.


	3. The Rise of Voltron Pt. 2

After setting up on a hill and hacking into the camera feed, they discovered that Shiro was strapped to a table. Except he looked different. His bangs were now white and he had a scar running across his nose.

 

He struggled against his bonds telling the scientists that aliens were coming and that they were looking for Voltron.

 

When explosions went off in the distance and the trio found that it was Keith who set them off, Lance felt anger rise in him. How dare he come back now. Where has he been for the last year? Lance pushed down the anger as they dragged Shiro out of there and towards Keith's hoverbike.

 

After losing the cars chasing them and going over a cliff, Lance yelled in excitement while Pidge and Hunk screamed in fear, they arrived at a cabin out in the middle of the desert.

 

Shiro came to when the sun started to rise. He went outside for a little bit, Keith followed. When they came back inside, Keith pulled a white tarp off of the wall, revealing bulletin board covered in a map and pictures. String connected them.

 

Shiro starred. “What have you been working on?”

 

“I can't explain it, really. After getting booted from the Garrison, I was kind of lost and found myself drawn out to this place. It's like something...some energy was telling me to search.” Keith looked at Shiro.

 

Shiro looked away from the board. “For what?”

 

“Well I didn't really know at the time…” Keith looked back at the board. “Until I stumbled across this area.” He pointed a spot on the map that was circled and labeled: energy source. “Outcroppings of giant boulders with caves covered in these ancient markings. Each tells a slightly different story about a blue lion.”

 

Lance felt a sharp pain shoot through his head. He grit his teeth trying to not let it show on his face.

 

Keith kept talking. “But they all share clues leading to some event, some arrival happening last night.” Keith looked back at Shiro. “Then you showed up.”

 

Shiro looked at the other three. “I should thank you all for getting me out.” He walked up to Lance and stuck his right hand out. “Lance, right?”

 

Lance held out his hand to shake Shiro’s but hesitated slightly. Something was off putting about Shiro’s arm, making him uneasy for some reason. He pushed the feeling aside and took Shiro’s hand. Shiro turned to Pidge and Hunk.

 

Pidge shook Shiro’s hand. “The nervous guy's Hunk. I'm Pidge. So did anyone else from your crew make it out?”

 

Shiro looked troubled. “I'm not sure. I remember the mission and being captured. After that, it's just bits and pieces.”

 

“Yeah, sorry to interrupt,” Hunk jumped in. “Back to the aliens. Where are they now? Are they coming? Are they coming for all of us? Like where are they at this very moment?”

 

Shiro looked down. “I can't really put it together. I remember the word: Voltron.”

 

Lance felt a flash of pain again and a vision of blue before it faded.

 

Shiro looked back up. “It's some kind of weapon they're looking for, but I don't know why. Whatever it is, I think we need to find it before they do.”

 

Hunk pulled Pidge’s bag over and started digging through it. “Well, last night, I was rummaging through Pidge’s stuff, and I found this picture,” he held up a picture of a boy in the Garrison uniform and a girl in a purple dress next to him. “Look, it's his girlfriend.”

 

Something flashed across Shiro’s face but it vanished before anyone saw.

 

Pidge snatched the picture out of Hunk’s hand. “Hey, give me that!” They grabbed their bag back. “What were you doing in my stuff?”

 

“Well, I was looking for a candy bar. But, then I started reading his diary.”

 

Pidge panicked. “What!?”

 

“And I noticed the repeating series of numbers the aliens are searching for looks a lot like a Fraunhofer line.”

 

Keith looked at Hunk. “Frown who?”

 

“It's a number describing the emission spectrum of an element,” Hunk explained. “Only, this element doesn't exist on Earth. I thought it might be this Voltron. And I think I can build a machine to look for it, like a Voltron Geiger counter.”

 

Lance looked impressed. “Hunk you big gassy genius!”

 

Hunk smiled. “It's pretty fascinating, really. The wave length looks like this.” He pulled out a hand made graph with several points and a jagged red line.

 

Keith grabbed it. “Give me that.” He brought it over to the board and held it up to a picture of the desert. The jagged line looked like the canyon wall tops.

 

Getting to the area of that canyon was long and they all felt dead on their feet. The sun hanging directly overhead was not helping. Entering the cave filled with carvings was a relief. The cave was cooler than outside and Lance almost let out a sigh of relief.

 

Shiro looked on in amazement. “What are these?”

 

“These are the lion carvings I easy telling you about. They're everywhere around here.”

 

Lance walked over to one. He felt a sense of familiarity which seemed to be happening a lot lately. The carving was covered slightly in dust so he brushed the drawing to see it better. He didn't expect it to glow blue.

 

“Whoa!” He backed away quickly.

 

The others gasped behind him.

 

“They've never done that before,” Keith said, surprised, as the other carvings also began to glow.

 

A circle glowed around them and ground broke beneath them, sending the group down into the dark.

 

They screamed as they were sent down into the hole before hitting some sort of waterslide that sent them deeper and further underground. Coming out the other side was not pleasant. They all landed in a heap in a shallow pool at the bottom, guaranteeing bruises for the next few days.

 

Lance was the first one to sit up. When he looked up he came face to face with a giant blue robotic lion. He was in a vision before he knew what was happening.

 

_The girl from the first vision walked beside him. Her face was still unclear but she looked younger than before, like in her early teen years. Lance also felt younger and he was shorter._

_**“______ where are we going? Are we going to see the lions?!”** he asked in excitement in the strange language._

_The girl chuckled. **“Yes, of course A_____. But only for a short while. We have other things to attend to.”**_

****

_A? A what? What was the rest of the word?_

_He groaned. **“But I don't wanna!”**_

 

_The girl frowned at him. **“Now A_____, that's no way for you to behaving in public.”**_

****

_The duo stepped through a larger doorway and came to face five larger robotic lions. Lance only got to really look at the blue lion before he was suddenly pulled out of the vision._

 

“Is this it? Is this the Voltron?” Pidge asked, getting to their feet.

 

“It must be,” Shiro said quietly.

 

Keith stared at it. “This is what's been causing all of this crazy energy out here.” He walked towards it. “Looks like there's a force field around it.”

 

The others slowly followed. Lance frowned at the lion before moving side to side. “Does anyone else get the feeling this is staring at them?”

 

Shiro looked at Lance. “No.”

 

Lance raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, the eyes are totally following me.”

 

Why did this lion seem so familiar to him?

 

Keith touched the force field. “I wonder how we get through this.”

 

Lance came up beside him. “Maybe you just have to knock.” Lance knocked on it twice but he wasn't expecting it to work, so when the force field let out a zap and pulsed, he jumped back in shock.

 

They all watched as the eyes glowed and the force field dropped, a circle with weird designs glowing beneath the lion. Hunk and Pidge yelled in shock. Suddenly another Lance was seeing another vision.

 

_Five lions in colorful glowing streaks flew up and merged together. A bright light and a giant robot with a flaming sword, surrounded by stars appeared._

Lance came out of the vision and everyone all at once gasped in shock. “Whoa…”

 

“Uh did everyone just see that?” He wanted to be sure it wasn't just him.

 

Hunk clenched his fists. “Voltron is a robot. Voltron is a huge, huge, awesome robot!” Hunk fist pumped.

 

Pidge stared wide eyed. “And this thing is only one part of it! I wonder where the rest of them are.”

 

Lance felt a pang of irritation at the blue lion being called a thing.

 

Shiro stared up at the lion. “This is what they're looking for.”

 

“Incredible.” Keith gapped.

 

The lion’s head came down, level to them as Hunk and Pidge screamed. The jaw opened and a ramp to get inside revealed itself.

 

Lance glanced at the others. “Hmm…”

 

A voice in the back of his mind, like from a distant memory, called out to him in the strange language. **_“No A_____. You mustn't enter the lion. Not until you're ready.”_**

 

Ready for what? Besides he's not going to let the voice of some random space lady stop him. He grinned and chuckled as he entered the mouth of the lion. The ramp led up some ways before turning to the left into an open space. The only door opened, revealing a chair.

 

Lance looked at it before sitting down, grinning to himself. He crossed his legs and said “here we go,” and the chair shot forward to a control panel, startling him and making him yelp in shock. He hit his head on the panels and when he looked back up, the panels were coming to life.

 

The others came up behind him as the screen pulsed and suddenly they could see outside.

 

“Alright, very nice!” Lance said, impressed.

 

“Okay, guys, I feel the need to point out just so we're all aware,” Hunk said nervously. “We are in some kind of futuristic alien cat head right now.”

 

Lance glanced at him before he felt something. A warmth spread through him and deep rumbling, like purring sounded in his ears. He looked at the others in shock. “Whoa, did you guys just hear that?”

 

Keith looked at him. “Hear what?”

 

“I think it's talking to me.” Lance wrinkled his nose at calling the lion an it. He looked at the dashboard, frowning. “Um…” He pressed a few random buttons and the lion got to its feet and roared making Pidge and Hunk scream again.

 

“Okay, got it. Now let's try this.” Lance thrust the controls forward and the lion shot out the side of the canyon.

 

They flew through the air before rolling and rockets turned on just before they hit the ground, keeping them in the air. They shot through the sky as Pidge and Hunk continued to scream.

 

“You...are...the worst pilot….ever!” Keith yelled in between the shaking and screaming.

 

They landed and the lion started bounding across the desert, shaking the passengers even more.

 

“Isn't this awesome?!” Lance yelled excitedly.

 

Hunk looked ready to barf. “Make it stop. Make it stop.”

 

Lance grinned. “I'm not making her do anything. It's like she's on autopilot.”

 

The lion shot into the air once again.

 

“Where are you going?!” Keith yelled at him.

 

“I just said she's on autopilot. It says there's an alien ship approaching Earth. I think we're supposed to stop it.”

 

“What did it say exactly?” Pidge asked in exasperation.

 

“Well it's not like she's saying words. It's more like feeding ideas into my brain, kind of.”

 

Hunk looked at him. “Well if this thing is the weapon they're coming for, why don't we just like, I don't know, give it to them? Maybe they'll leave us alone.”

 

Lance wanted to yell at Hunk. They couldn't just give her to the enemy! They won't leave! Everything would be lost! Wait, when did he start calling it a her? And what would be lost? Instead Lance just frowned at Hunk.

 

“Sorry lion nothing personal,” Hunk apologized.

 

Shiro looked at him. “You don't understand. These monsters spread like a plague throughout the galaxy, destroying everything in their path. There's no bargaining with them. They won't stop until everything is dead.”

 

They all frowned at Hunk. He grinned sheepishly. “Oh. Never mind then.”

 

The lion had continued to shoot into space and past Earth's atmosphere. Suddenly a giant purple ship appeared in front of them, dwarfing the lion.

 

“Holy crow, is that really an alien ship?” Hunk asked them.

 

The lion flew around the ship to the side as Shiro stared at it.

 

“They found me.”

 

The ship started firing at them and Pidge yelled “We got to get it out of here!”

 

“Hang on!” Lance pulled at the controls, flying the lion around the lasers, trying to get them away. “Okay, I think I know what to do!”

 

Pidge came up beside him. “Be careful man! This isn't a simulator!”

 

Lance laughed. “Well that's good. I always wreck the simulator.” The lion dodged lasers as Lance flew towards the ship. Thrusting the controls forward, a blue beam shot out of the lion's mouth and blasted a line in the side of the ship. Lance yanked the controls back this time and the lion shot forward before dragging its claws across the side of the ship, making part of the ship explode.

 

“Okay, I think it's time to get these guys away from our planet.” Lance flew the lion further away, trying to get the ship to follow them.

 

The plan worked but the ship was faster than them.

 

“They're gaining on us!” Pidge yelled.

 

“It's weird. They're not trying to shoot us. They're just chasing.” Lance frowned.

 

“Okay, seriously, now we think having aliens follow us is good?” Hunk exclaimed worriedly. “I am not on board with this new direction, guys.”

 

Keith scowled. “Where are we?”

 

“Edge of the solar system,” Shiro answered in awe. “There's Kerberos.”

 

“It takes months for our ships to get out this far,” Pidge said in disbelief. “We got out here in five seconds.”

 

Suddenly a wormhole opened before them. A swirling vortex of white and black energy that seemed to draw them in.

 

“What is that?” Hunk pointed at it.

 

“This may seem crazy, but I think the lion wants us to got through there.” And honestly Lance kind of wanted to go through it too.

 

Pidge looked at Lance. “Where does it go?”

 

Lance glanced at Pidge. “I...I don't know. Shiro, you're the senior officer here. What should we do?”

 

Shiro looked down at him. “Whatever is happening, the lion knows more than we do. I say we trust it, but we're a team now. We should decide together.”

  
They all looked at Lance. A look of determination crossed his face. “Alright, it looks like we're all ditching class tomorrow.”


	4. The Rise of Voltron Pt. 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I have like 7 more chapters of this written up but I didn't want to post all of them right away. As it is, I posted 3 yesterday. Oops.

~~~~The lion flew through the wormhole. Everything started shaking violently as they were transported across the galaxy. When they flew out the other side, a planet much like Earth loomed in front of them.

 

“Whoa. That was…” Lance was cut off as Hunk vomited. Lance felt the lion grumble in annoyance.

 

He briefly apologized before going back to puking.

 

Pidge adjusted their glasses. “I'm just surprised it took this long.”

 

Shiro looked at the stars. “I don't recognize any of these constellations. We must be a long, long way from Earth.”

 

“The lion seems to want to go to this planet. I think...I think it's going home,” Lance said as the lion blasted towards the planet.  _We're going home..._ _what? We?_ Why did Lance think that?

 

As they entered the atmosphere, everyone hung onto the chair.

 

“Guys, personal space. Hunk, your breath is killing me,” Lance said in annoyance.

 

“Um, is it just me or is anyone else having second thoughts about flying through a mysterious wormhole?” Hunk clung tighter to the chair. “Why are we listening to a robotic lion anyway?”

 

“It got us away from that alien warship, didn't it?” Lance was growing steadily more annoyed.

 

Keith leaned in close to be heard over the rumbling. “ I don't know if you noticed, but we're in an alien warship.”

 

 _It doesn't feel alien to me…_ Lance thought before saying “Oh are you scared?”

 

“With you at the helm? Terrified,” Keith shot back.

 

“Alright, knock it off,” Shiro intervened. “No one is happy to be in this situation, but we're here now. If we want to get through this, we've got to do it together.”

 

They looked at Pidge as they spoke. “So, what do we do?”

 

“First we find out where we’re headed.” Shiro looked down at Lance. “Lance?”

 

“I don't know.” He looked down before looking at the others. “I'm sorry. The lion’s not talking to me anymore. Wait, there's a castle up ahead.”

 

A large white castle loomed up in front of them. It consisted of a large, main building surrounded by slightly smaller white spires. The whole thing sat on what appeared to have once been an island but the water had gone down. Broke down bridges connected it to the mainland. Lance felt a strange sense of deja-vu.

 

They stared in amazement as the tips of all of the buildings flashed brilliant blue and the lion touched down in front of a large door.

 

Shiro frowned at it. “Keep your guard up.”

 

Pidge looked at him. “Is something wrong?”

 

“My crew was captured by aliens once. I'm not going to let it happen again.”

 

They all exited the lion once it had opened its mouth for them. They all yelled in surprise when it closed its mouth and Hunk yelled about how it was going to eat them but it just roared and the large doors opened.

 

Hunk looked out from behind Shiro. “Oh, the door is open.” He looked back at the lion. “I guess I was wrong about you.”

 

They walked up to the doors and entered the dark castle. When Hunk called out they all froze and looked back at him. He just shrugged.

 

They entered a fairly large room that seemed really familiar to Lance. Like he's been here before. Bright lights and cheerful music flashed in his head before quickly disappearing.

 

Pidge looked at the steps in front of them. “From the size of the lion, I expected these steps to be bigger.”

 

Something sounded above them and light flashed. Suddenly they were surrounded in a blue light.

 

A woman's voice sounded from somewhere. “Hold for identity scan.”

 

They were each scanned as Shiro called out “Why are we here? What do you want with us?”

 

The light disappeared and series of lights lit up down the hall at the top of the stairs.

 

“I guess we're going that way,” Pidge said.

 

They were led down a series of hallways by the strange lights, Hunk calling out every so often. Lance felt like he knew where they were going, but he couldn't figure out why. At the end there was a door that opened to reveal a circular room with tall columns around the outside and a small control panel in the center.

 

Lance thought it looked familiar. He thought for a moment. Oh yeah! He dreamed about this room before and in fact had a rough drawing of it back at home.

 

Hunk called out again and Lance asked “Where are we?”

 

Pidge stopped by the control panel. “It's some kind of control room.” A glowing symbol appeared on it and beeped twice before two tubes rose from the ground with a whoosh.

 

Hunk hid behind the control panel. “Are these guys...dead?”

 

One glowed and the strange green glass dissolved, revealing a beautiful girl with cocoa skin and snow white hair. She wore a blue and white dress with gold accents. A gold band rested on her head and pale pink crescents under her eyes.

 

Lance felt a sharp pain go through his head at the sight of her, stronger than ever before. He gasped and held his head.

 

Hunk looked at him worriedly. “Hey buddy, you okay?”

 

Lance grit his teeth. “I'm fine.”

 

Suddenly the girl gasped and exclaimed “father!” before falling forward. Keith, who was closest, caught her.

 

She looked up at him. “Who are you? Where am I?” She suddenly grabbed Keith's arms and twisted them behind his back. “Who are you? Where is King Alfor? What are you doing in my castle?”

 

“A giant blue lion brought us here! That's all we know!” Keith said quickly.

 

She released him. “How do you have the Blue Lion? What happened to its paladin? What happened to my brother? What are you all doing here? Unless...how long has it been?”

 

“We don't know what you're talking about,” Shiro told her. “Why don't you tell us who you are. Maybe we can help.”

 

She looked at him. “I am princess Allura of planet Altea.”

 

Lance grit his teeth as he was hit with another sharp pain.

 

Allura walked towards the control panel. “I've got to find out where we are and how long we've been asleep.”

 

Pidge watched in fascination as Allura placed her hands on the panel and it lit up blue and a holoscreen popped up. “Okay, that's how that works.”

 

As Allura typed something the other pod opened up, revealing a man with orange hair and a mustache and teal markings beneath his eyes.

 

He saw Lance and yelled “Enemy combatants!” and tried to attack him. Lance jumped out of the way, which sent another spike of pain shooting through his head. He grabbed the sides of his head and knelt on the floor.

 

The man flailed before steadying himself on the other pod. “ _Quiznak!_ You're lucky I have a case of the old ‘sleep chamber knees.’” He turned to face Lance before seeing him on the floor. “Hey boy, are you alright?”

 

Hunk came over and put a hand on Lance's back. “Buddy, are you sure you're okay?”

 

“It can't be,” Allura said from by the computer.

 

The man looked over at her. “What is it?”

 

“We've been asleep for ten thousand years!” She seemed to have a flashback before growing sad. “Planet Altea, and all the planets in our solar system have been destroyed.” She looked at the man. “Coran, father is gone. Our entire civilization...and if they have the Blue Lion, then…” she choked back tears.

 

Lance felt overwhelming sadness run through him.

 

Allura looked up in anger. “Zarkon.”

 

Shiro gasped. “Zarkon?”

 

“He was the king of the Galra. A vile creature and enemy to all free people.”

 

“I remember now… I was his prisoner.” Shiro looked at Allura.

 

“He's still alive? Impossible!” She clenched her hands.

 

“I can't explain it, but it's true. He's searching for a super weapon called Voltron.”

 

“He's searching for it because he knows it's the only thing that can defeat him, and that's exactly why we must find it before he does.”

 

She kept searching for something on the computer. Coran tried to convince her to eat. “Princess, you must eat. It's been ten thousand years!”

 

“I'm not hungry.”

 

 __“Man, ten thousand years? That's like one thousand plus ten.”

 

“That's times ten.” Keith corrected Lance.

 

“Whatever, dropout.” Lance scowled at Keith.

 

“I haven't eaten since breakfast and I'm starving.” Hunk grumbled.

 

Pidge looked at him. “Yeah, but you've thrown up, like, five times.”

 

“Hmm, good point,” Hunk said before eating the gross, green goo in front of him.

 

Shiro was looking around. “I can't believe your civilization created such advance technology ten thousand years ago. It must have been an incredible place.”

 

 _It was..._ Wait how did Lance know that?

 

Coran looked at him with sadness in his eyes. “Yes, it was...but now it is gone and we're the last Alteans alive.” He looked at Allura who looked down in sadness so Coran went to comfort her.

 

A soft squeaking reached her ears and Allura quickly went over to the pod she was in. She saw four mice and smiled softly. Lance jolted back slightly. Her smile looks kind of like the one he was drawing. He really wanted to finish the drawing now more than ever but it was back home, between the mattress and the bed frame of his bed at the Garrison.

 

“It looks like we're not the last after all.”

 

An alarm blaring startled them all as a window popped up on the holoscreen.

 

“A Galra battleship has set its tracker to us!” Coran exclaimed.

 

“How did they find us?” Allura asked.

 

“I'm not sure, but I bet it's Keith's fault.” Lance quickly blamed Keith.

 

“Say whatever you've got to say to make yourself feel better.” Keith glared at Lance. “After getting us stuck on the other side of a wormhole!”

 

“I'll stick you in a wormhole!” Lance got up in Keith's face, ready to fight.

 

Shiro came over, pushing them apart. “Stow it, cadets!” Lance put his hands in the air in a ‘fight me’ gesture. “This is no time to place blame. It's time to work as a team.” Shiro faced Coran and Allura. “How long before they arrive?”

 

Coran counted on his fingers. “At their speed? Oh, well, carry the two...I'd say probably a couple of days.”

 

Allura looked determined. “Good. Let them come! By the time they get here, you five will have reformed Voltron, and together, we will destroy Zarkon’s empire.”

 

Hunk burped. “Sorry. Food goo.”

 

“Princess, there are five of these lions. How are we going to find the rest?” Shiro asked.

 

Allura stepped up under the crystal and closed her eyes. A soft teal light began to shine down.

 

“King Alfor connected the lions to Allura’s life force. She alone is the key to the lions’ whereabouts.”

 

Allura stood for a moment before snapping her eyes open. At the same time, a galaxy spread out around them. They all gasped in awe.

 

“These are coordinates,” Pidge noted. “The Black Lion looks like it's in the same location as the Blue Lion.”

 

Coran came up beside them. “Look at your primitive synapses firing away in their little brain cage.”

 

Pidge raised an eyebrow.

 

Allura looked at Pidge. “Very observant. That's because the Black Lion is in the castle.”

 

“To keep the Black Lion out of Zarkon’s hands, King Alfor locked it in the castle. It can only be freed if the other four lions are present,” Coran told them.

 

“As you have found, the lions choose their pilots. It is a mystic bond and cannot be forced. The quintessence of the pilot is mirrored is in his lion. Together they form something greater than science can explain.”

 

Lance felt another sense of deja-vu, like he's had this conversation before.

 

Allura sweeped her hand around. “The Black Lion is the decisive head of Voltron. It will take a pilot who is a born leader and in control at all times, someone whose men will follow without hesitation.” The hologram of the Black Lion came to stop in front of Shiro. “That is why, Shiro, you will pilot the Black Lion.”

 

She swept her hand again, making the stars once again spin. “The Green Lion has an inquisitive personality and needs a pilot of intellect and daring.” The Green Lion stopped in front of Pidge. “Pidge, you will pilot the Green Lion.”

 

She once again swept her hand. “The Blue Lion is the friendliest and most confident of the lions and will take a kind soul and gentle hand to guide it.” The Blue Lion stopped in front of Lance. “That is why, Lance, you will pilot the Blue Lion.” She choked slightly on her words before taking a deep breath.

 

Hunk made a confused sound while Pidge snorted with laughter.

 

“The Yellow Lion-” Allura swiped her hand, “-is caring and kind. It's pilot is one who puts the needs of others above his own. His heart must be mighty.” The Yellow Lion stopped in front of Hunk. “As the leg of Voltron, you will lift the team up and hold them together.”

 

Hunk pointed at himself, confused.

 

“The Red Lion is temperamental,” Allura opened her hands, the Red Lion materializing in them. “And the most difficult to master. It's faster and more agile than the others, but also more unstable. Its pilot needs to be someone who relies more on instincts than skill alone. Keith, you will fly the Red Lion.” The Red Lion came to rest in front of Keith. “Unfortunately, I cannot locate the Red Lion's coordinates yet. There must be something wrong with the castle. After ten thousand years, it might need some work.” She smiled slightly.

 

“Don't worry,” Coran told them. “We’ll find it soon. They don't call me “The Coranic” for nothing. It's because it sounds like “mechanic.” So...Coranic, mechanic.” Coran fiddled with his mustache. “It's not- it doesn't sound exactly like it. It's similar.”

 

The lions roared before flying together.

 

“Once all the lions are united, you will form Voltron,” Allura said as there was a bright flash and a giant robot appeared. “The most powerful warrior ever known, the Defender of the Universe.” It slowly faded along with the surrounding galaxy hologram.

 

“Awesome,” Hunk said. “Wait. Okay, we're going to be in there and flying lions. Got that part. How do lions turn into legs? Also, is this going to be a long trip? Because I have to pee. Do you people pee?”

 

“We don't have much time.” They all turned to Shiro. “Pidge and I will go after the Green Lion. Lance, you take Hunk and get the yellow one. Keith, you stay here. If you locate the Red Lion, go get it.”

 

“In the meantime, I'll get this castle's defenses ready,” Allura told them. “They'll be sorely needed.”

  
Coran looked at Pidge and Shiro. “I'll ready a pod and load in the coordinates so that you can reach the Green Lion.”


	5. The Rise of Voltron Pt. 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My weak shipper heart accidently turned this into the start of Klance. I am weak. Curse these stupid space gays.
> 
> I didn't originally plan for any really huge shipping in this fic but it kinda just happened??

Coran told them that the planet was peaceful. Their arrival on the planet, however, was not peaceful. Currently they were spinning through the sky as Galran ships fired at them.

 

Hunk and Lance screamed as the ships fired missiles at them, avoiding the first few but the last one knocked them out of the sky.

 

“I thought Coran said these planets were peaceful!” Hunk yelled.

 

“Maybe “peaceful” means something else in Altean!” Lance yelled back but for some reason he knew that was immediately wrong. And that the Altean word for peaceful was   ** _Paesiel_** and literally meant to be at peace. How did he know that? No time to think about it now. They were going to crash into the ground if he didn't do something.

 

Lance activated the thrusters and they shot through the canyon, right towards more ships firing at them.

 

Hunk groaned from somewhere behind him. “According to the coordinates, we're right on top of the Yellow Lion. It's below there, where they're mining for the ore.”

 

A screen popped up on the side where it zoomed in closer to the cave entrance.

 

“They don't even know the lion is there. Or maybe they just got here and they're digging for the lion?” Hunk looked at Lance. “What do you think Lance?”

 

Lance looked back at him, annoyed. “Who cares? Just go get it! I'm dropping you down there.”

 

“Me? Down there? No. No, no, no.”

 

“Yes, I'll cover you.” Lance flew down towards the cave.

 

“What if the Yellow Lion doesn't work? What if I can't get in the mine? What if I start crying?” Hunk started crying. “It's too late, I'm already crying!”

 

“Sorry, no time for questions.” Lance hit a button, ejecting Hunk from the lion.

 

Hunk rolled towards the cave and Lance blocked lasers from hitting him before charging back out at the ships. He grabbed one by a wing and swung it into another ship before crushing some soldiers beneath him. Lance ran away from the cave, trying to draw them away from Hunk. Three ships came flying at him straight on when he felt it.

 

“Oh no. Not again, this is the worst time and place for a vision.”

 

Nevertheless, he was pulled in.

 

_He was still in the Blue Lion and he was still fighting enemy ships, but he wasn't alone. A girl slightly older than him was clinging to the seat as they swerved in and out of the lasers._

_**“We have to get out of here!”** she yelled._

 

_**“Hang on Lorena!”** Lance yanked the controls, swerving around the lasers, only to come to face three enemy ships. The ships fired missiles at them and Lance thought they were done for. He braced for impact when he was suddenly brought out of the vision by a blast knocking him around._

He was thrown sideways as a blast hit the side of the Blue Lion, almost knocking him out of his seat. The three ships were still coming at him with more ships with them so he took off into the sky, firing lasers from the tail of the lion at them. He flew past them before twisting around and flying back towards them. He grabbed one in the lion's mouth before crushing it. Before he hit the ground he used the thrusters stop himself and fly after the other ships headed back towards Hunk.

 

He fired lasers at them, hitting one of them, but not before it fired a missile, destroying the cave entrance.

 

“Hunk!” Lance yelled. But he could only watch as the entrance exploded in a giant cloud of flames. Lance didn't have a whole lot of time before the remaining ships turned to him and started firing. Lance had no choice but to fly away.

 

“Hunk, come on! Please buddy!” Lance cried out when the lasers hit him and sent the Blue Lion tumbling to the ground. “Oh, no, no, no, no, no! Going down! We're going down!” Lance tried to pull up but it didn't work as the Blue Lion hit the ground hard and rolled before coming to a stop at the base of a large canyon wall. Electricity crackled around the lion and alarms blared inside, screens flashing red.

 

“Oh no.” The three remaining planes came at him, firing missiles and Lance flashed back to the vision briefly before closing his eyes and preparing for impact.

 

Hunk chose that moment to burst out of the ground, stopping the missiles. He launched at the three planes, promptly crushing them beneath him before turning to the Blue Lion.

 

“You okay Lance?”

 

“Hunk! I thought you were dead! You jumped in front of those shots to save my life.”

 

Hunk popped up on Lance's dash. “Well, actually I was trying to get out of the way. Thankfully what this thing lacks in speed, it more than makes up for it in armor. Man, can it take a beating!”

 

More ships came at them, firing their lasers.

 

“We've got incoming!” Hunk turned towards the ships.

 

Allura appeared on Lance's screen. “Paladins, please hurry back. I can't hold the wormhole much longer.” She disappeared.

 

“Let's get out of here!” Lance and Hunk took off to the sky towards the wormhole.

 

Unfortunately, because the Yellow Lion was somewhat slow, it got hit by the lasers, sending it spinning as it flew towards the wormhole. Fortunately, it made it through safely.

 

~~

 

The door beeped when it opened, letting Hunk and Lance enter, both still groaning in pain.

 

Allura turned to them. “You made it.”

 

Lance rolled his shoulders. “Yeah, just barely. That was a nightmare. I almost puked out there. I felt like Hunk!”

 

“Think how I felt. I am Hunk.”

 

“Yeah. We had a tough time, too.” Pidge grinned at Shiro.

 

Shiro smiled back before looking at Allura. “Did we find the Red Lion yet?”

 

Coran came over. “Allura just located it. There's a bit of good news and bad news.” He pulled at his mustache. “The good news is that the Red Lion's nearby. The bad news is, it's on board that Galra ship now orbiting Arus. But wait, good news again. We're Arus!”

 

“They're here already?” Shiro asked in shock.

 

“Yes. Guess my calculations were a bit off. Finger counting- it's more of an art than a science.”

 

The screen behind him flickered. A purple guy with fuzzy ears appeared.

 

“Princess Allura, this is Commander Sendak of the Galra Empire. I come on behalf of Emperor Zarkon, Lord of the Known Universe. I am here to confiscate the lions. Turn them over to me or I will destroy your planet.” The screen flickered again and he disappeared.

 

“Alright let's not panic,” Shiro said, trying to keep everyone calm.

 

“Not panic? The scary purple alien thing is driving his battleship toward us. We only have four lions-”

 

“Technically, only three working lions.” Pidge corrected Hunk.

 

“That's right. Thank you, Pidge.”

 

 _Yes, thank you Pidge._ Lance frowned at Pidge.

 

“Three working lions and castle that's like ten thousand years old.”

 

Coran jumped in. “Actually, it's ten thousand six hundred years old. You see, it was built by my grandfather-”

 

“Thanks, Coran. Thank you for that. See? Now is the perfect time to panic!”

 

“Wait! this castle has a particle barrier we can activate,” Allura told them.

 

Coran brought up a diagram of Sendak’s ship. An ion cannon flashing red on top. “The particle barrier won't hold Sendak’s ion cannon forever. The Galra technology must have advanced since we fought them last.”

 

“Panic now?”

 

Shiro looked at Hunk. “No. We just got to figure out our plan of action, and figure it out quickly.”

 

“I say was pop through a wormhole and live to fight another day,” Lance said.

 

“I second that. Yes. I mean we tried to find all the lions, right? We gave it the old college try. Couldn't do it. We only have three. We can't form Voltron. I guess we could form a snake. Or a worm! To go through that hole, Lance, that you were talking about.”

 

Lance grinned at Hunk. At least someone agrees with him. “Then it's settled.”

 

Pidge looked at Lance in anger. “We can't just abandon Arus. The Galra will keep destroying planets and capturing prisoners until we stop them.”

 

“Okay. If we run, then maybe Sendak will follow us and leave this planet alone, like when we left Earth. We form the snake-worm thingamajig, and we-” Hunk made a hissing noise “-out of here.”

 

“Sendak could destroy the planet then come after us anyway. Staying is our only option.”

 

Lance glared at Keith. “Here's an option: shut your _quiznak_.”

 

“I don't think you're using that word correctly.”

 

Lance knew he wasn't, but he was already to deep in the argument to care. “What do you know, Mullet?”

 

“We're staying!” Keith got up in Lance's face.

 

“Leaving!” Lance got up in Keith's face, their foreheads almost touching. _Oh...Keith is kinda close...like really close..._

 

“Staying!” yelled Pidge, breaking Lance out of his thoughts.

 

“Snake!” Hunk yelled over Pidge.

 

“Guys, stop!” Shiro yelled over all of them. “Princess Allura, these are your lions. You've dealt with the Galra Empire before. You know what we're facing better than any of us. What do you think is the best course of action?”

 

“I...I don't know.” She looked down.

 

Coran looked at her. “Perhaps your father can help.”

 

She looked at him. “My father?”

 

When Allura returned she was dressed in a suit instead of her dress. “You five paladins were brought here for a reason. The Voltron lions are meant to be piloted by you and you alone. We must fight and keep fighting until we defeat Zarkon. It is our destiny. Voltron is the universe's only hope. We are the universe's only hope.”

 

“We're with you Princess,” Shiro said to her.

 

 _Are we? I mean do we have to? Does this mean we're_ not  _going home? But..._ Lance kept his thoughts to himself.

 

Allura lead them down several hallways to a normal looking door. When it opened, they saw five tube things with spacesuits in them. The suits all looked the same except for the highlights; those colored to correspond with their lions.

 

“Your suits of armor.” Allura gestured to the suits.

 

Lance made a sound of amazement as everyone else also expressed their amazement at the suits.

 

“Boys.” They all looked at Shiro. “It's time to suit up.”

 

Once they were all in their suits, each suit changing to match the person’s figure, Allura pressed her hand to the top of a glowing table. The glowing screen disappeared, revealing four identical bayards.

 

“The bayard,” Allura said as they rose to float in front of her. “Is a traditional weapon of the Paladins of Voltron.” The bayards turned and floated towards their respective paladin. “It takes a distinct shape for each paladin.”

 

Hunk grabbed his and it turned into a large cannon gun, making Hunk almost drop it. Keith's turned into a sword as soon as his hand closed around it, a shield appeared on his left arm as well. Lance's turned into a machine gun which he started aiming around. It felt very familiar in his hands. Pidge’s flashed and a knife like edge appeared around the tip of the bayard. Pidge swung a few times, getting a feel for their new weapon.

 

“Aw, you got a cute little bayard.”

 

Pidge swung at Lance electrifying him. He screamed and fell to the floor. “Yeah, it is pretty cute.”

 

After returning to The Crystal Room, Allura told them the plan. “You'll need to retrieve the Red Lion from Sendak’s ship.”

 

“That's a pretty big ship. How are we gonna know where the Red Lion is?”

 

Pidge looked at Keith. “Well, it's not a matter of _we_. It's a matter of _you_.”

 

“Pidge is right.” Hunk agreed. “Once we get you in, you'll be able to feel it's presence and track it down.”

 

“Yeah. You know how you felt that crazy energy while we were in the desert?”

 

Keith looked at Lance. “Yeah, you made fun of me for that.”

 

“And I'm proud of that, but turns out it's exactly like that mumbo-jumbo.”

 

“Keith, remember, the Red Lion is extremely temperamental. You'll have to earn its respect.”

 

Keith nodded at Allura then at Shiro when he put his hand on Keith's shoulder.

 

“Alright, here's our plan of attack. The Galra Empire knows about the Blue and Yellow Lion, but we don't know we have the Green Lion, too. Hunk, Lance, you'll act as decoy by pretending to give yourselves up.”

 

An uneasy feeling settled itself in Lance's stomach at that part of the plan. He didn't want to give up Blue, even if it was fake.

 

“While Sendak is distracted, Keith, Pidge, and I will sneak onto the ship in the Green Lion. Keith and I will find the Red Lion while Pidge guards our exit. Hunk, Lance, find some way to take down that ion cannon.”

 

The flew up to the Galra ship, the uneasy feeling growing.

 

“Attention, Galra ship. Do not fire. We are surrendering our lions,” Lance said as he and Hunk flew in front of the ship. “Hope this works.”

 

When the large doors of the ship opened, Lance asked Pidge, “Pidge, what's your ETA?”

 

“We're in,” came Pidge’s voice through the coms.

 

Immediately after, a bright purple light lit up inside the doors.

 

“What's that thing?” Hunk asked.

 

“I think that's our signal to get out of here!” Lance yelled, yanking Blue’s controls and zipping out of there. Lance watched the purple beam shoot off into space.

 

Galra fighter ships launched out of the battleship. “Hunk, you dismantle the ion cannon while I take these jerks on a space ride!”

 

Lance shot off towards the ships as Hunk flew towards the cannon, dodging the laser beams the ship fired at him. Lance flew around firing at the fighter ships causing them to explode. Hunk threw himself at the cannon but crashed into a particle shield.

 

Lance flew down around the bottom of the ship as fighter ships chased him. “Whoa-ho-ho! Yeah, buddy! This is way more fun without Hunk’s barfing!” He'd dodged around another ship as Hunk crashed into the shield again.

 

Fighting and dodging the Galra felt familiar to Lance. This is something he's supposed to be doing, like it was ingrained into his brain. He closed his eyes and breathed in, when he opened them again he let what felt like muscle memory take over and began to weave and dodge expertly, like he'd been doing this his whole life.

 

When the Green and Red Lions flew over and away from the battleship and Hunk had crashed into the side of the cannon, denting it, Lance flew after them.

 

“You guys made it!” Hunk’s voice crackled over the coms.

 

“Kitty rose has left the stage!” Pidge’s voice came next.

 

“Let's get the heck out of here!” Lance said.

 

The Yellow Lion bounded across the top of the ship. “I hope I stopped that cannon. I could barely make a dent in it.”

 

When they returned to the castle, the lions sat in an almost circle in front of huge doors inside the hanger. Each lion lit up and the huge door glowed and rose, revealing the Black Lion. The Black Lion glowed, stood up, and roared, making the other lions do the same.

 

Just in time too, because the castle's alarms started going off as the huge battleship entered the atmosphere.

 

“Sendak is entering the Arusian atmosphere. We need Voltron, now!” Allura yelled over the coms.

 

Shiro entered the Black Lion and shot up through the air, the other lions following. The lions flew out the top of the castle and landed lined up next to each other in front. The smaller fighter ships fired at the particle barrier around the castle as the once again working ion cannon prepared to fire. The purple beam blasted towards the castle, engulfing it in a ball of fire.

 

“The barrier gets weaker with every blast!” Coran told them. “Once that shield goes down, the castle will be defenceless!”

 

“I can give you cover with the castle defenses for a while, but you have to form Voltron now or we'll all be destroyed!”

 

The ion cannon fired again, weakening the barrier even further.

 

Shiro groaned. “Listen up Team Voltron! The only way to succeed is to give it all you've got! This looks bad, but we can do this! Are you with me?”

 

Lance gritted his teeth and nodded.

 

Hunk’s voice came over the com. “I'm nodding. Is everyone else nodding?”

 

“Yes.” They all replied.

 

“Let's do this!” Shiro yelled as they all shot forward.

 

“Uh...how?” Lance asked.

 

“Good question. Does anyone have any ideas of how to form Voltron?” Shiro asked them.

 

“I don't see a “combine into giant robot” button anywhere on my dashboard,” Hunk replied.

 

They jumped off a cliff and continued to run as ships fired at them.

 

“This is insane!” Pidge yelled. “Can't they just cease fire for one minute see we can figure this out? Is that too much to ask?”

 

Keith skidded to a stop. “We gotta do something.”

 

Hunk crashed into him, yelling “combine!”

 

Keith grunted as the Red Lion rolled. The Red Lion got to its feet as Keith said “hey!”

 

“Okay that didn't work.”

 

Ships fired at them, forcing them to keep running.

 

Allura appeared on the screen, looking troubled. “Quickly, paladins! Our energy levels are getting low!” She flickered as the barrier was hit again.

 

“Maybe if we fly in formation, we'll just combine.” Shiro suggested. “Take off on my cue.”

 

They rapidly approached the end of the island. “One, two, three, Voltron!” They launched off the edge, flying into to air.

 

“Here we go,” said Keith.

 

“Come on, come on.” Lance gritted through his teeth.

 

His dashboard lit up red as Shiro said “nothing's happening.”

 

“Hey, wait, wait, wait! I feel something!” He felt a weird pull, and not a good weird.

 

“I do too!” Hunk replied. “I feel it. It's like we're all being pulled in the same direction!”

 

“Uh, guys, I think I know why.” Shiro told them. “Look up.”

 

“What the cheese?” Lance paled as he realized they were all stuck in the tractor beam of the giant ship. Lance felt sick to his stomach. _Oh no, Zarkon was going to get Voltron. Zarkon was going to win. They should have listened to-_

 

“Sendak’s ship is sucking us in like a black hole!” Pidge had realized it as well.

 

The ion cannon fired and the shield around the castle exploded, leaving the castle defenseless.

 

“Oh no,” Shiro said as Hunk appeared on the screen.

 

“I don't care what you say, Shiro. I'm panicking now!”

 

“It can't end here!” Pidge yelled over Hunk’s screaming.

 

“This is it!” Lance didn't want to believe it, but it looked like this was the end.

 

“It's been an honor flying with you boys,” Keith said solemnly.

 

“No! We can do this. We have to believe in ourselves. We can't give up. We are the universe's only hope. Everyone is relying on us. We can't fail! We won't fail! If we work together, we'll win together.”

 

Shiro’s speech inspired them all and they yelled “yeah!” as the lions roared and began to glow. They each felt their lion transform and connect together to form Voltron.

 

The ion cannon fired at the castle but the shot went to the side instead as Voltron knocked the cannon out of line.

 

“I can't believe it!” Keith exclaimed.

 

“We formed Voltron!” Pidge yelled.

 

“I'm a leg!”

 

“How are we doing this?”

 

“I don't know,” Shiro replied. “But let's get that cannon!”

 

The hands grabbed the arm of the cannon and tore the whole thing off the ship before punching down into the hull with the Red Lion. The Red Lion fired through the ship, making the front explode. Voltron flew up towards the control room of the ship, crashing down into it and firing with the Green Lion, making more things explode. Voltron flew up above the ship and then down through the engines, making the whole ship explode.

 

When Voltron untransformed and the group exited their lions, Allura and Coran came out to meet them.

 

“Good work paladins!”

 

“We did it.”

 

“Heck yeah, we did.” Keith took off his helmet and turned to Shiro.

 

“How did we do it?” Shiro asked in wonder.

 

“I was just, like, screaming the whole time.” Hunk took off his helmet. “Maybe that did it.”

 

Pidge frowned as they put on their glasses.

 

Shiro put his hand on Pidge’s shoulder and they looked up at him. “We're not going to stop searching until we find your brother and father. Wherever they are, I know they'd be proud of you.”

 

Pidge smiled.

 

They turned to Allura as she started speaking. “We won the battle, but the war has only just begun. I'm afraid Zarkon will not stop until he gets these lions.”

 

“Good thing you paladins know what you're doing, because you're going to have to form Voltron again and again.”

 

“Totally.” Hunk realized what Coran had said. “Wait, what?”

 

Lance looked at Coran. “We barely survived forming Voltron this one time.”

 

“And you only had to fight one ship!” Coran flailed around. “Wait until you have to fight a whole fleet of them!” He stood back next to Allura and fiddled with his mustache. “It's not going to be easy being the Defenders of the Universe.”

  
They all blinked at him before Shiro smiled. “Defenders of the Universe, huh? That's got a nice ring to it.” They all looked up at their lions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> R.I.P. my ability to write fight scenes.
> 
> Also did anyone notice the small Langst I through in there?


	6. Dreams Don't Always Suck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge let's Lance borrow their headphones and Lance has a dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have some minor Pidge and Lance bonding.

After the lions were back in their hangers and everyone was changed out of their suits, Coran served up everyone some goo. Keith wrinkled his nose and Pidge poked at theirs with a spoon. Shiro hesitantly ate some while Hunk just started shoveling it in.

 

Lance took a small bit on his spoon and put it in his mouth. He expected it to taste gross but it was actually kind of good. It didn't taste like anything they had on earth and the texture reminded him of jello.

 

After everyone ate, Coran showed them their rooms. Lance sat, staring out the window at the stars. He couldn't pick out any familiar constellations, reminding him of just how far away from Earth they really were. He never felt more alone.

 

After staring out the window for almost an hour, he got up and looked around the room. His bed was in alcove in a corner away from the door with storage cupboards above it. Across the room from his bed was a desk with more storage space above it. On the wall next to the desk was a door that led to the bathroom. A closet was in the wall across from the bathroom. Between the bed and closet doors was a small square door.

 

Lance opened the small door and found a laundry shoot of some sort. Lance opened the cupboards above his bed and found more sets of sheets, identical to the ones already on his bed. The closet was empty and the bathroom looked like any other bathroom. He didn't expect to find anything in the cupboards above the desk but when he opened them, he found several notebooks, loose paper, and pens and pencil like utensils.

 

Okay, so maybe he didn’t have his sketchbook but at least he could still draw. Lance sat at the desk for another hour, drawing before deciding he should probably sleep. But sleep would not come. Lance lay there for almost two hours before getting up and started to wander around the castle. It had to be almost two in the morning on Earth, so why couldn't he sleep?

 

Maybe it was because he had a large family and they lived near the ocean in an old house. He shared a room with two of his younger brothers so he was used to hearing their light snoring and the creaks of the house settling. The castle was far enough away from the beach that he couldn't hear the waves and the silence unsettled him.

 

He decided to head down to the hanger and chill with Blue for a while. He passed by the cryopod room and saw Pidge typing away at their computer.

 

“Pidge? What are you still doing up?”

 

Pidge jumped when Lance spoke. They sighed and rubbed at their eyes beneath their glasses before looking at Lance. “I could ask you the same thing.”

 

He looked away from them. “I couldn't sleep.” He glanced at them before looking at the floor. “I have a large family so I'm used to noise. I don't like the silence.”

 

Pidge smiled softly at him before pulling at the headphones around their neck. “Here.” Pidge held them out to Lance.

 

Lance blinked at Pidge.

 

Pidge rolled their eyes and shook the headphones lightly. “Take them, it should help. You can use them at night but I'll need them back during the day.”

 

Lance walked forward and took the headphones from Pidge. “Thank you,” he said, holding them lightly in his hands.

 

“Don't mention it.”

 

When Lance returned to his room he plugged the headphones into his phone and brought up the playlist he had saved on his phone. He pressed play and let the soft music wash over him.

 

_Lance pulled at the tight collar around his neck. He was dressed in what looked like formal Altean clothes and he was standing behind a curtain. He could hear music playing and people talking and laughing softly on the other side._

_A maid slapped softly at his hand. **“Don't mess it up.”** She adjusted the front of the outfit before nodding her head and shoved him out the small gap in the curtain._

_Lance emerged next to a throne with a man sitting in it. He had white hair and beard and a soft smile as he looked at Lance. **“A_____, finally decided to show up, did you?”**_

****

_Lance blushed as a women in an identical throne on the other side of the man laughed._

_She had chocolate brown hair that fell in soft curls around her face. Her caramel skin crinkled around her pastel blue eyes as she giggled._

_**“Oh Alfor, don't tease him.”** She smiled at Lance. **“So A_____, how long did the maids have to chase you down this time?”**_

_Before Lance could reply, a maid who had appeared next to the woman answered. **“It took us an hour to track him down and another half to get him into his formal clothes.”**_

****

_Lance blushed as the woman laughed again._

**_“By the way, your Majesties, the King and Queen of Ashwen are here.”_ **

_**“Wonderful!”** Alfor turned to Lance. **“A_____, why don't you go find your sister and give whatever poor prince she's dancing with a break.”** He turned to the woman. **“Come my dear, let us go greet the leaders of our neighboring planet.”**_

_The Queen took his hand and they both walked off into the crowd._

_The maid turned to Lance. **“Prince A_____, I believe I saw your sister last dancing with the prince of Venuria.”**_

_Lance bowed his head and thanked her before heading off into the crowd to find them. He did eventually find the pair, the poor prince did indeed look like he need rescuing from Lance's over energetic sister._

_Lance tapped the prince's shoulder. **“Mind if I cut in?”** The poor prince gave him such a look of relief before quickly disappearing into the crowd. Lance chuckled before taking his sister's hand and placing his other on her waist._

_**“Why did you do that, A_____? I was dancing with him.”** She pouted at him as the danced._

_Lance laughed again. **“It looked more like you were playing with him, Als. Keep it up and you'll never find someone who will want to marry you.”**_

****

_She rolled her eyes. **“But I don't want to marry anyone. Never mind a stuffy prince.”**_

_Lance pouted at her. **“I'm not stuffy.”**_

****

_She laughed. **“No, you're just silly.”** She glanced around. **“It’s getting really crowded. Can we leave?”**_

_Lance recognized the signs that she was beginning to freak out. His sister never did well in huge crowds. **“Of course we can Als.”**_

_They quickly left the large ballroom and out into the expansive castle gardens. They walked around just talking and laughing. Lance told her about how he's been and she did the same. Ever since she started her extra classes to be the next ruler of Altea, Lance saw her less and less._

_They happened upon the fountain that was at the center of the garden maze. They sat and continued to talk before she suddenly splashed him. Lance shot to his feet shrieking._

**_“That's cold!”_ **

_She cackled and Lance quickly splashed her back. She yelped and ran around the fountain. Lance chased her, still trying to splash her. She started splashing back and they ended up soaking each other._

_They fell down in the grass, laughing._

_**“Oh man, the maids are going to be so mad.”** Lance looked at his dirty clothes._

_His sister laughed. **“Let them be mad. I haven't had this much fun in a long time!”**_

****

_Lance laughed with her. **“Yeah, I haven't seen you in forever! I really missed you.”**_

_She smiled and leaned over to hug him. **“I missed you too. Love you A_____.”**_

  
_Lance hugged his sister back. **“Love you too, Allura.”**_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What will happen now? Will Lance remember his dream?
> 
> I might post the next chapter tonight or tomorrow, haven't quite decided yet.


	7. Some Assembly Required

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this is the last chapter from the rewrite so updates might take longer might not, really depends. Anyways enjoy!!

Lance didn't remember much of the dream when he woke up the next morning. Which was a bit odd seeing as he usually remembered his dreams. He remembered that he was at a dance of some sort and that Allura was there. And a beautiful woman who looked a lot like him. Not much else though.

 

He left his room and headed towards the control room. The doors opened and he found that everyone was there.

 

He yawned. “Good morning everybody. What's going on?” He walked towards the group.

 

“Coran and I have been up for hours getting the Castle back in order. We had to run a test on the alarms and decided to test you as well.” Allura frowned at them. “Guess which one failed.”

 

Lance felt bad for not hearing the alarms and promised himself to apologize later.

 

“Hey!” Hunk yawned before continuing. “You got to sleep for ten thousand years, man. Monday night, I was on Earth. Now, I've flown through space, fought some evil alien named Zarkon, eaten goo in some weird castle. That's a lot to process in, uh...I don't know. What day is today?”

 

“It's the third quintant of the Spicolian movement.” Coran told him. “Hump day!”

 

Lance raised an eyebrow. Did Coran just use a dead Earth meme?

 

“It's a lot to process.”

 

“You must understand the stakes of our mission.” Allura began typing away on a screen that had appeared. “Over the last ten thousand years, the Castle picked up distress beacons from the following locations.” A map of the universe appeared and three fourths of it lit up red. “So we have to assume that Zarkon has conquered almost the entire known universe.” She swiped her hand and the section of blue spun around to them. “Earth is here. An attack on your planet is inevitable.”

 

A sinking feeling settled itself in Lance's gut.

 

“Oh no.” Hunk frowned.

 

“Exactly. Our mission is to free all those planets. Coran and I are getting the Castle ready to leave Arus. During that time, you have to learn to Voltron, so we can begin to fight Zarkon.”

 

“The princess is right. Let's get to our lions and begin training.”

 

Pidge looked at Shiro. “Wait. But I want to talk to the prisoners we rescued from the Galra ship.”

 

“Negative, Number Five.” Coran was bent over, using his arms to measure Pidge. “I have you ranked by height, okay?” He stood back up. “The prisoners need to remain in the cryo-replenishers until tomorrow.”

 

“That's right. Now get to your lions.”

 

They headed towards the overly complicated system that would take them to their lions.

 

Everyone was out in front of the castle except for Hunk because he had problems getting to his lion. He eventually made it out to the rest of them.

 

“Alright, guys. Let's fly in tight formation until we're totally in sync,” Shiro said as Allura appeared on their screens.

 

“Feel the bond with your lions and your fellow pilots, until five become one unit and you form Voltron!”

 

They tried five times without success when Shiro said they should set down. Keith suggested they try building Voltron from the ground up.

 

Lance thought it was a good idea but he wasn't going to let Keith know that.

 

They stacked up but Hunk was on the top. After getting him to go be a leg they tried again. It wasn't working and Allura came on screen, telling them that she had to test the Castle's defenses.

 

The particle barrier formed around the castle and began firing at them. They all screamed and began to run away. Lance tried to get back into the castle but he slammed into the barrier instead.

 

They ran around trying to avoid the blasts and Lance had a strange sense of deja-vu. Why would getting shot at give him deja-vu? When the castle stopped firing at them and the barrier went down, they headed back inside and crashed on the in floor couch.

 

Allura and Coran came through the door. “Are we full power on condenser number five yet?” She asked him.

 

“No, still just eighty-four percent.” He replied.

 

She looked at them. “You did it! You formed Voltron!”

 

“No. The shooting stopped and the particle barrier shut down, so we just flew in,” Keith told her.

 

Allura scowled. “What?”

 

Coran looked at her. “Oh, right. Sorry, Princess. I had to turn off the Castle's defenses to test the fire suppressors.”

 

They looked at Shiro when he walked in from another door. “What are you guys doing in here? We're not taking a break.”

 

“Shiro’s right. You should be training.”

 

Hunk groaned. “We've been training. When are we going back to Earth?”

 

Pidge sat forward. “I'm not going back until I find my family.”

 

“Guys, there won't be an Earth if we don't figure out how to fight Zarkon.”

 

Lance shot to his feet. “How are we going to fight? We can't even figure out how to form Voltron.”

 

“Well I'm not surprised,” Coran said. “You know, the original paladins fought hundreds of battles together, side-by-side. They were like a pack of yalmors linked at the ears. Even the original Blue Paladin, and he was a prince. He always found time in between his duties for his team.” Coran stopped talking at the sad look on Allura’s face.

 

“Wow. Yeah, that's definitely not us.” Lance flopped back on the couch. The original Blue Paladin was a prince? How was Lance supposed to live up to a prince?!

 

“During the last attack, your survival instincts forced you to work as a team, but that will only get you so far. You'll have to become a real team to have any chance of forming Voltron and then beating Zarkon next time. You should try working out on the training deck.”

 

Hunk raised an eyebrow. “There's a training deck?”

 

Coran led them to the training deck before disappearing up into a room on one side of the room.

 

Coran told them about needing to protect their teammates before activating spherical drones to shoot at them. Pidge fell through the floor first when Hunk ducked to avoid a shot. Hunk went next when he didn't block a shot fast enough.

 

Coran increased the intensity, forcing the remaining three to back into a tighter circle. The drones quickly took all three of them out.

 

Coran next had them try an invisible maze with Lance going first. Keith was at the mic guiding Lance through. After running into the walls twice, Lance demanded to switch places.

 

~~

 

They were flying in their lions once again as Coran talked to them over the coms.

 

“You'll never be able to form Voltron unless each of you has a strong bond with his lion.”

 

“No problem. Me and Blue are best buds for life, for real.” Lance felt Blue let out a purr like rumble.

 

“Perfect! Then you won't have any issues with this exercise. Everyone, put your lions into a nosedive!”

 

They each turned their lions and flew straight towards the ground.

 

“This is an expert-level drill that you really shouldn't attempt until you've been flying for years, but, uh, we're in a bit of a rush, so here we go. Activating training helmets.”

 

Everything went black and Lance started to panic. “Coran, what's happening? I can't see!”

 

“You must learn to see through your lion's’ eyes. The goal is to pull up right before you crash into the ground. Feel what the lion feels!”

 

Lance was still panicking. He couldn't do this! He was going to pull up when he felt a warm presence in his mind.

 

_Be calm my paladin. No harm will come to you._

 

Lance let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding.

 

“Mine feels scared!” Hunk said and Lance knew he had pulled up.

 

Lance started to freak out again when the voice spoke again.

 

_Do not fear. Trust me and no harm will befall you._

Lance felt another presence nearby and asked “You still going, Keith?”

 

“You know it? You?”

 

“Going? I'm speeding up!”

 

_Paladin, do not-_

 

Lance ignored the voice and thrust the controls forward.

 

“Oh yeah?”

 

Lance and Keith raced towards the ground.

 

“Must be getting close.” Lance glanced towards the presence but only saw black.

 

“Must be.”

 

“You getting scared?”

 

“I'm not scared!” Keith yelled at the same time as the voice urged Lance to pull up, but it was too late. They both crashed into the ground, head first with a large boom.

 

Lance felt his lion tip and roll down a hill. “I win,” he said as he felt Blue grumble at him.

 

“What was that noise? Did they crash?” Pidge’s voice said before they yelled as they hit the side of a canyon.

 

Lance grumbled when Shiro said “I think I'm getting this.”

 

“Excellent Shiro!”

 

They returned to The Castle of Lions and met back up on the training deck. Coran handed them each a headband type thing and had them sit in a circle.

 

“Now the most important part of Paladin training is being able to meld your minds and focus on one thing: Voltron. Everything else has to fade away. This technique will be essential every time you form Voltron. So relax and open your mind. No walls, no secrets between paladins.”

 

Lance watched as Keith thought about his cabin, Hunk thought about food, Pidge thought about that one picture, Shiro thought about a military base. Lance took a breath and watched as the lady from his dream formed. He'd been thinking about her and why she looked so similar and had been wanting to draw her all day but training had gotten in the way.

 

“Come on, everyone clear everything. Now focus on forming your lion.”

 

He shoved thoughts of her away and focused on Blue.

 

“Bring your lions together and form Voltron. Keep your minds open, work together! Good! Keep focusing! Only one to go!”

 

“Pidge, stop thinking of your girlfriend!” Keith scolded.

 

“I wasn't! Hunk was rooting around in my head!”

 

“I thought we were open. You can look in my head hole.”

 

“Everyone has to be able to look at everyone's head holes! Clear your minds!”

 

They tried again.

 

“Good. Almost there. Now form Voltron.”

 

They got almost everyone connected to Voltron.

 

“Yes!”

 

But as Pidge tried to connect, their lion flickered and the picture came back up.

 

“Pidge!” Lance frowned at them.

 

Pidge stood and threw the headband on the floor. “I'm done with this! Look, I don't like everyone grabbing around in my head!”

 

“Oh, come on, Pidge, we're starting to get the hang of this.” Shiro looked at Pidge.

 

“I'm just...I'm just tired, okay?”

 

“Okay. Let's take a break.”

 

Coran came down and passed out water pouches. “You have been working hard. Maybe it's time to relax a little.” He kept looking at Lance curiously.

 

Allura came into the room. “What are you doing lying around? You're supposed to be training!” She scowled at them.

 

“Just resting a bit. You know, you can't push too hard.”

 

“What do you mean “can't push too hard”? Get up, you lazy lumps! It's time you faced the Gladiator!”

 

~~

 

They stood with their weapons out in a loose circle, with their backs to each other.

 

“In order to defeat the Gladiator, five paladins must fight as one.”

 

They looked up as a hole in the ceiling opened up and a large robot fell down.

 

Hunk spun to face it, shooting as it came at him. Keith formed a shield as the shots missed and came at him. The Gladiator swung its staff and knocked Hunk off his feet. It thrust one end down as Hunk fell on the floor, electrifying him with a minor shock.

 

Pidge came at the Gladiator next, trying to get inside it's defense but failing horribly. Every time the Gladiator hit Pidge’s weapon, it sent a shock through Pidge’s arm. The Gladiator hit Pidge in the chest with the end of its staff, throwing Pidge back into Hunk.

 

Lance fired at the Gladiator but it just twisted and blocked the shots, coming closer to Lance. Lance really wished he had a short range weapon before the Gladiator hit his gun out of his hands sending it spinning away. It hit his head before whacking Keith and hitting Lance in the head again. When it swung at Lance's abdomen, Lance grabbed the staff and flipped over it and using the staff and his momentum to swing a kick at its stomach. The Gladiator twisted and Lance's foot grazed the side of it. The Gladiator swung the staff around with Lance still holding on and threw him into Keith, sending both crashing to the ground.

 

 _How did he do that?_ It was almost reflex and he was in motion before he knew what was happening.

 

Keith was up off the ground while Lance lay there, still dazed.

 

Shiro activated his arm but as the Gladiator ran at him, he froze. Just before it hit him, Keith jumped in, blocking the staff with his sword.

 

“Shiro, are you okay?”

 

The Gladiator slid the staff off the sword and knocked Keith off his feet before hitting him into Shiro, sending both into the ground.

 

The Gladiator deactivated as Allura came in.

 

“That combat simulator was set at a level fit for an Altean child! And only Lance was closest to beating it! Lance!”

 

“I resent that.”

 

“You're not even close to working as a team, let alone ready to face Zarkon!”

 

~~

 

“Ahoy, young paladins! I've whipped up a big batch of focusing food. After this meal, you'll be forming Voltron six times a movement and twice on the astral conflux!”

 

They were now sitting at the long table in what could be considered the dinning room, with large bowls of goo and some purple cubed stuff.

 

“Smells great, Coran. Thanks.”

 

They all went to eat when suddenly Coran pressed a button and bracelets formed around their wrists. Locking them to each other.

 

“Hold the phone!” Lance looked at Coran.

 

“I saw a lot of solid individual performances today, but you're still struggling to work as a team. So, welcome to the final bonding exercise of the day.”

 

Hunk tried to pull his hands away from Lance and Shiro, but they just shot back together.

 

“Coran,” Hunk frowned at Coran. “I want you to think about you're doing.”

 

“This one's a classic. You get to feed each other, like a pack of yalmors!”

 

They all groaned.

 

“Now don't be upset. Even the original paladins had to do this. They wouldn't stop fighting with each other, especially the Red and Blue paladins. They were constantly at each other's throats. But the Blue Paladin was always a little hot headed, starting fights with thugs on whatever planet they happened to be on at the time.” He messed with his mustache. “Always trying to stand up for the innocent.”

 

Lance felt like that sounded really familiar. But how? He'd never done anything like fight thugs.

 

When they tried to eat, they ran into a lot of problems and started to fight. Lance wanted to get up in Keith's face but his arm attached the Hunk’s prevented that. After Pidge yelled at Allura about being a princess of what when there was no one but them out here, Allura launched goo at Pidge. That started a full on food fight.

 

The fight ended when Allura sat down in one of the clean chairs and the paladins laughed at each other.

 

“Enough!” Allura yelled in what seemed like anger. “Do you see what you're doing?” She looked up with a smile on her face. “You're finally working together as one!”

 

“Hey, she's right!” Keith and Lance looked at each other.

 

“I actually don't hate you right now.” And Lance was telling the truth. He really didn't hate Keith.

 

“You guys thinking what I'm thinking?” Hunk looked at them.

 

“Let's go form Voltron!” Shiro raised his free arm.

 

“Yeah!” they all yelled.

 

“Actually I was thinking dessert. But yeah! Let's do it!”

 

They yelled as they all fell to the floor.

 

They headed to their lions, telling Shiro that they were ready. They quickly formed Voltron and landed in front of Allura and Coran.

 

~~

 

Lance fisted pumped. “Man that was cool! I'm so charged up, I don't know if I'm going to be able to sleep tonight.”

 

They were back in the room with the couch.

 

“Not me. When my head hits the pillow, I'm going to be lights out,” Keith said.

 

“I just want you to know,” Hunk slid to sit in between them. “That I realized when we were in Voltron-” he pulled them into a hug, “-we're brothers, man. You know? Like, we're totally connected. No secrets, no barriers, no nothing. Brothers all the way. I love you guys.”

 

Keith looked at Hunk. “G-forces mess with your head a little bit?”

 

“Yeah, maybe a little. I don't know. It's been a tough few days.”

 

They all got up, Hunk and Lance walking after Shiro, while Keith shot off over the back of the couch.

 

Shiro turned to Pidge. “Going to bed, Pidge?”

 

“In a minute.”

 

“Good work today. We're really coming together.”

  
They walked out the door and headed to bed.


	8. Fall of the Castle of Lions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 8!! I just finished writing this and I would have finished this earlier but I was busy yesterday with worrying whether or not my country was going to burn. It is and I gave myself 2 panic attacks over it.
> 
> Also I skipped episode 3 because after I shortened some scenes and added some stuff, the chapter didn’t even break 900 words. It also didn't really advance the plot of this story all the much, so I scrapped it.

Defeating the giant alien monster was difficult, and Lance is just glad they're alive. All he wanted to do after was curl up in his room and draw. Or sleep. Sleep sounded good right now.

 

But Allura had other plans. She invited the Arusians into the castle for a party of some sort before they left the planet. The Arusians put on a little show about the battle. Allura said a few words and gave the Arusian King a communicator of some sort and the Arusians cheered.

 

Hunk walked over to Lance and Keith. “We ought to get something like that.”

 

Lance raised an eyebrow. “Like what?”

 

“You know, like, a cheer. Like, a team cheer that we do.”

 

Lance thought about it. “Hmm...yeah, okay. How about, uh...I say Vol and you say Tron. Vol!”

 

Keith looked at Lance. “Uh, Vol...tron?”

 

Lance frowned. How did Keith not get the point of the cheer? “No. No, no, no. The cheer includes the instructions. I say Vol and you say…”

 

“Vol...tron?”

 

“We'll work on it.” Lance took a sip of his drink. He immediately wanted to spit it out but he forced himself to swallow it and turned to Coran. “Coran, what is this?”

 

“Oh, this is Nunvill, the nectar of the gods.”

 

“It tastes like hot dog water and feet.”

 

“Yeah, makes a wonderful hair tonic as well.” Coran sprayed some on his mustache before walking away.

 

Lance wanted to barf. Keith and Hunk looked at him and checked him over as he stood there, frozen. Keith tapped his shoulder and Lance fell over, still in shock. They stood over him, watching.

 

Lance eventually stood up and went to stand in a corner of the room. He watched as Keith took a sip of his drink, a disgusted and shocked look appeared on his face before Keith spat his drink out on Hunk. Hunk yelled “my eyes!” before turning around with the weird popsicle pops in his eyes. They laughed, as did the group of Arusians around them. Lance chuckled, a weird warm feeling fluttered around in his gut. Keith wandered off somewhere and Hunk came over to Lance.

 

Lance looked down at his new cup of Nunvill. “I guess we should get used to this space juice.” He looked at Hunk. “Who knows when we'll get back home again?”

 

Hunk swirled his around in the cup. “Yeah, if ever.”

 

“What do you mean?” _Hunk, don't say that…_

 

“I mean, if this Zarkon guy has been ruling for ten thousand years, how long do you think it will take for us to fix it? You know, if we live.”

 

Lance frowned and looked down. “Right. That.” He looked back up at Hunk.

 

Hunk looked down at his bowl of purple cubes. “Hey, what do you think the chances are of us landing on a nacho planet?”

 

Lance smiled. “Well, there's only one planet with Veradera Beach, pizza shack looking over the water and the garlic knots, and…” he frowned again. “...my mom's hugs…” He sniffled and bowed his head to hide his face so no one saw his tears. “I'm sorry. I think this Nunvill is getting to me. I gotta go.” He quickly walked away and past Coran, up the stairs.

 

He made his way to The Crystal Room and sat down in front of the main control panel.

 

“Mind if I join you?”

 

Lance turned slightly as Coran jumped down from next to the control panel. “How far away from Earth do you think we are, Coran?” Lance wanted to know, but at the same time he kind of didn't. What if it just made him miss home more?

 

“Let's take a look.” Coran walked forward to activate the star map. The stars expanded across the room. “Earth is here,” he pointed to a galaxy, “and we're all,” he dragged out the all as he used both hands to pull the map around, “the way over…”

 

Lance's eyebrows rose as more and more galaxies flew past. He was right, he didn't want to know. “You ever notice how far away the planets are from each other, Coran?”

 

“Yes.” Coran was still spinning the map around. “Haven't you been paying attention?”

 

Lance got up to stand next to Coran. “But I mean, like, they're really, really far away. Like, say Earth. It's so far I can't even see it.” Lance frowned at the galaxy in front of him. “The...the blue oceans, the white clouds, green grass…” his expression got sadder the more he talked. He just wanted to go home. “I...I can't see any of it.”

 

Coran looked at him. “You miss Earth. I understand. I miss Altea.”

 

“I know we're supposed to be brave paladins and Defenders of the Universe or whatever, but, honestly, I just want to go home.”

 

“If I could go home, I would.”

 

“I miss rain and splashing in puddles.”

 

“Rain?”

 

“Yeah. It's water that falls from the sky.”

 

“Oh we had that on Altea. Only, it wasn't water, more like rocks. Razor-sharp and boiling-hot. Oh, they could knock a hole right in your head.”

 

“Sounds fun.”

 

“Yeah. You know, I faintly remember having a similar conversation with the original Blue Paladin. It was his first mission away from Altea by himself and he really missed home.”

 

“You keep bringing him up. Were you close?” Lance was curious about his predecessor.

 

“Sort of. I didn't know him when he was younger, but after I became the royal advisor I got to know him. He was Allura’s younger brother by a few years and from what I heard, he was so insistent on piloting the Black Lion when he was younger. But as he grew, that desire faded and he became more insistent on piloting the Blue Lion instead.”

 

“Was there a reason for that?”

 

Coran shrugged. “Not that I can really think of. I know he was friends with the Black Paladin when they were younger but when the Black Lion choose him, they became distant. He also fought with the Red Paladin a lot but something happened one mission and they became really close. The Prince was devastated when the Red Paladin’s ship malfunctioned and crashed. No one survived and the Prince locked himself away for weeks. His father, the King, eventually got him to leave the planet for a while to hopefully help him. The war broke out while he was away, so I don't know what happened to him.”

 

“I'm sorry.”

 

Coran put his hand on Lance's shoulder. “Don't worry about it. It was a long time ago. I only hope he died peacefully and Zarkon didn't get him. Come, let's head back down to the party. People will be missing us.”

 

Coran turned to walk out the door, Lance a few steps behind him. As Coran walked out the door, Pidge’s little robot, Rover, flew in.

 

“Hey, Rover,” Lance said to the little robot. Then a thought came to him. _Wasn't Rover always with Pidge?_ “Wait. Where's Pidge?” Lance turned to the drone up by the crystal. It turned red and started to beep louder.

 

Lance heard the fast beeping and realized that it was a bomb. He quickly turned and pushed Coran down just as the bomb exploded. Lance felt the debris strike him and felt an enormous pain shoot through his head when a fairly large piece hit him in the back of his head.

  
His last thought before he blacked out completely was _I hope Coran is okay. They can't replace him, but if I die then they can replace me._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm excited for the next chapter because I get to write it completely on my own!! No episodes!! And you'll all get more memories/dreams/visions while Lance is passed out!!!
> 
> Also, have some more Langst!!


	9. Family And Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is unconscious and he has more dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next chapter, sorry it took so long. Also do you guys see those numbers? Over 1000 hits and 100 kudos! I wanted to post a chapter as a thanks but it wasn't done and I didn't want to post a half-assed chapter. As it is I'm still not entirely happy with it.
> 
> Because the whole chapter is made of "dreams" I didn't italicize the dreams like I normally do.

Lance wandered out into the castle gardens. He had just finished with his lessons for the day and could now do whatever he wanted. Which wasn't much seeing as he was only five and a prince no less.

 

He as at the back of the gardens when he heard footsteps.

 

 _ **“Hello?”** _ He called out. He heard a small gasp and a shuffling of feet as the person darted off into the maze. _**“Hey, wait!”**_ Lance chased after them.

 

Fortunately, he knew this maze better than anyone, except maybe the gardeners, so he managed to corner the person in a dead end. When they turned to face Lance, he saw that is was a girl, who looked about his age. She had pale blonde hair that reached her shoulders, pastel pink eyes, and purple eye scales. She was dressed in a soft blue sundress with a darker blue ribbon around her waist.

 

 _ **“Who are you?”**_ He asked.

 

She squared her shoulders and looked him in the eyes. _**“I'm Lorena, one of the gardener's daughter. Who are you? And what are you doing in my maze?”**_ she demanded.

 

_**“I'm Prince Al____, and this is my maze.”** _

 

She huffed. _**“No it's not. It's my maze!”**_

__

_**“Well that's my castle, and these are my grounds. So therefore, this is my maze.”** _

 

She puffed out her cheeks and pouted before laughing. _**“I like you, Al____. We should hang out more.”**_

__

Someone called Lorena’s name while someone else called Lance's. The two children went their separate ways.

 

~~

 

 _Duck, weave, strike, dodge, repeat._ Lance was older now, around thirteen, and going up against a training gladiator. He had taken to fighting them almost everyday ever since his sister was off on some diplomatic mission to another planet with their mother. They were scheduled to return soon, but he still missed them.

 

He struck the Gladiator, defeating it. It paused, letting Lance decide if he wanted to go to the next level or power down. He wiped his forehead and said _**“end training sequence.”** _ The Gladiator hunched over as it shut off and Lance walked over to the weapons room to put the sword he was using, back. He was in desperate need of a shower after training and headed out the door to head back to his room to do just that, when something crashed into him.

 

He let out a grunt and looked down at what had run into him. He was met with a head of pale blonde hair tied up in a ponytail and bright pink eyes.

 

_**“Hey, Lorena, aren't you supposed to be working on your project for your engineer final?”** _

 

She wrinkled her nose. _**“Who cares? Allura and Queen Temary are back! Their ship just landed!”**_

_**“Then what are we waiting for?”**_ he grabbed her hand. _ **“Let's go!”**_ and took off down the hall with Lorena in tow.

 

When they got to the hangers, Allura and the Queen had already exited the ship.

 

 _ **“Allura!”**_ Lance called.

 

Allura, now age 16, turned to face Lance. _**“Al____!!”**_ She ran forward and scooped her little brother up in her arms. _ **“Oh how I missed you!! It's been so long since we last saw each other!”**_

Lance hugged her back. _**“I know, almost two months. Why did the planet have to be so far away?”**_

 

 _ **“I know, I never get to see you anymore.”** _ She pulled back and wrinkled her nose. _**“You smell terrible. Did you not shower while I was gone or something?”**_

 

Lance pouted. _**“No! I just finished training is all. I was about to shower when Lorena told me you were back.”**_

Allura looked at the grease covered girl and shook her head. _**“You both are a mess. Go shower, both of you. Go on.”**_ She pushed them back towards the castle. _**“I'll give you both a proper hug when you're clean.”**_

~~

 

_**“Oh, Al____. Are you in here?”** _

 

Lance turned to look at the doors to the library. _**“I'm here, Allura.”**_

 

She rolled her eyes at him before walking over to where he was curled up in one of the large armchairs. _**“Of course you are. Why am I not surprised. I got you something.”**_

 

Lance noticed that she had her hands behind her back. _**“What? What is it?”**_ He tried to look behind her but she just turned. _**“What did you get me? Teeeeell meeeeee!”**_ He whined.

 

_**“What are you, 15 or 5?”** _

 

Lance launched out of his chair and tackled Allura. She shrieked as they fell to the ground. The wrapped package fell out of Allura’s hands and slid across the ground. Lance tried to get it but before he could take two steps, Allura grabbed his leg and pulled him down. She proceeded to sit on him and tickle him mercilessly.

 

Lance shrieked with laughter and tried to push Allura off of him. _“ **No! ‘llura stop! No!”**_

_**“Do you give? Say you give and you can have the package.”**_ She stopped tickling him and held his wrists tightly in her grasp.

 

 _ **“Okay, okay. I give.”**_ Lance tried to catch his breath as Allura got off of him and went to go get the package.

 

He sat up when she came back and handed it to him. Not wasting any time, he tore the brown wrapping off.

 

He gasped. _**“Allura, is this?”** _ He held the book lightly in his hands.

 

_**“Yup, a copy of** _ **Where The Sun Rises** _**.”** _

 

It was one of Lance's favorite books. Copies of this book were rare and Lance's copy had been lost when he was younger. He was devastated.

 

_**“Thank you so much Allura. I...I don't know what to say.”** _

__

_**“How about instead of just saying ‘thank you’ you give your big sister a hug. I don't get to see you much anymore.”** _

 

Lance stood and wrapped his sister in a big hug, holding her as close as he possibly could.

 

~~

 

 _ **“Happy birthday, Al____!”**_ Allura burst into the common room where Lance was sitting on a couch with a Galra curled up against him. He couldn't see the Galra’s face as it was blurred except for the mouth, like how faces had been when he first started dreaming.

 

 _ **“Oh good, ____hial** (pronounced like he-elle) **is here as well. Come on, both of you. We're going somewhere.”**_ She dragged both of them off the couch and down a hall.

 

 ** _“‘lluraaaaa,”_** Lance whined. **_“I was comfy. Where are we going?”_**

 

_**“Somewhere.”** _

 

Lance frowned. _**“That's not very helpful.”**_

 

_**“Deal with it.”** _

 

Lance huffed.

 

The Galra laughed. It sent a fluttering feeling in Lance's gut, and he couldn't help but smile.

 

After a few more minutes of walking, they arrived at a door.

 

 _ **"We're here!”** _ Allura knocked on the door three times and waited a few moments before opening the door.

 

 _ **“Happy seventeenth birthday Al____!”**_ The room was filled with people he knew. His family, his friends, and the other paladins were there.

 

_**“Thanks you guys, but you really didn't have to…”** _

 

 _ **“We wanted to.”**_ The Galra wrapped his arm around Lance's shoulders.

 

 _ **“Yeah! So don't worry about it!”**_ Lorena called from across the room where she was standing next to the Yellow Paladin. _ **“So let's get this party started!”**_

 

Lance enjoyed the party. It was fun seeing some friends he hadn't seen in awhile, and getting to spend time with Allura was always a plus.

 

The party started to wind down a few hours later and people started to leave, having duties to get back to. When the last person left, Lance and the Galra retreated to Lance's private rooms. They curled up on one of his couches much like they had been when Allura found them.

 

Lance was running his fingers through thr hair on the back of the Galra’s head when he sighed.

 

The Galra looked up at him, which was kind of weird when he couldn't see their eyes. _**“What's wrong?”**_

 

 _ **“Nothing, it's just…”**_ He sighed again. _ **“I just wish you didn't have to leave for so long.”**_

__

The Galra sat up. _**“Hey, look at me.”**_

 

Lance looked over at them.

 

_**“It's only for five months. I'll be back before you know it.”** _

 

_**“But what if we need to form Voltron and you're not here? We can't form Voltron without the Red Lion-”** _

 

The Galra pressed a finger to Lance's lips. _**“Hey, enough of that. The universe is in a time of peace. I seriously doubt you'll need to form Voltron in the five months I'm gone.”**_

 

_**“But-”** _

  
_**“Nope. We only have the rest of today before I leave tomorrow. Let's enjoy it while we can.”**_ The Galra curled back up against Lance and Lance wrapped his arms around their waist, resting his head on top of theirs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boy oh boy, I hope you all enjoyed that chapter. I had fun writing it that's for sure. Also, I used a fake title for the book Allura got Lance because I couldn't think of any books that Lance would like that Altea would have, so fake book.


	10. Taking Flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance doesn't want to think about Keith and wishes he flirted with Rolo instead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, uh...long time no see?? Sorry for disappearing for a while there. I lost my muse for this story and then life got really busy. But I have my own laptop now so I should be writing more, hopefully!  
> I will not be working on Stardust until this story is finished in case future seasons have more backstory to Altea as season 3 did.  
> I will try to update more often but I make no promises as I do work a full time job and have college classes.

_ Lance stood in the training room from a previous dream, dressed in the Blue Paladin armor, his bayard, unactivated, was in his right hand. The Galra from before was standing nearby, dressed in the Red Paladin armor with his arms crossed. _

 

**_“Just focus on your bayard and it should manifest into your desired weapon.”_ ** _ He sounded annoyed. _

 

_ Lance groaned.  _ **_“We've been at this for several vargas. Can't we take a break?”_ **

 

_ The Galra sighed.  _ **_“We've only been doing this for half a varga. Not that long, so no, we can't take a break.”_ **

 

_ Lance groaned again.  _ **_“But how is it going to turn into my desired weapon when I don't know what my desired weapon is?”_ **

 

**_“What are you most proficient with? Try that.”_ **

 

**_“I'm a prince. I'm supposed to be proficient with all weapons.”_ **

 

_ The Galra sighed, pinching his nose.  _ **_“Just...just close your eyes and focus.”_ **

 

_ Lance closed his eyes and breathed in. _

 

When he opened his eyes again, it was to Sendak holding Pidge off the ground in his Druid enhanced arm and Keith on the ground a little ways away. In Lance's hands was his blaster rifle. He didn't have to spend too much time aiming before he fired, hitting Sendak’s arm, causing him to drop Pidge to the floor. The last thing he saw before passing out again was Keith cutting Sendak’s arm off.

 

Lance came to again when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He grabbed the hand that was being held out in front of him and looked up at Keith who was helping him sit up.

 

“We did it. We are a good team.” Lance smiled softly at Keith who blinked at him before gently smiling back.

 

Lance saw a flash of purple fur, soft gold-yellow eyes, and the same soft smile that Keith currently had before he felt a flash of pain behind his eyes and everything went black once more.

 

When Lance came to a third time, he felt a blast of cold air and he briefly flashed back to his dream of someone yelling and pushing him into a ship.

 

He heard a hiss and stumbled out of the cyro-pod, blinking his eyes. When everything came into focus, he saw everyone standing huddled in a circle. When he stumbled up behind them he saw that Coran and Pidge had timers out.

 

“What's going on? Are we having a clock party?”

 

They all spun to face him and Hunk practically full-body slammed into him crying.

 

“Lance! You're okay! I was so worried!” Hunk squeezed Lance in a tight hug.

 

“I'm fine now buddy.” Lance patted Hunk’s shoulder as he tried to breathe through Hunk’s bone crushing hug.

 

Hunk set him down and they turned to Allura when she spoke. “You're probably hungry, so why don't we get you something to eat and then we can talk about what happened while you were out.”

 

Lance turned to Coran as they walked out of the med bay. “So what were you guys doing?” He raised an eyebrow.

 

“Oh, we were comparing which time measuring unit was faster. A tick or one of your Earth seconds.” Coran twisted his mustache.

 

“Ticks are longer than seconds by about half a quarter of a second which is equivalent to a fourth of a tick,” he blurted without thinking.

 

Everyone paused to look back at him. Coran stopped fiddling with his mustache and blinked at him.

 

“How could you possibly know that?”

 

Lance rubbed the back of his head. “I...I honestly don't know.”

 

“Well, no matter!” Coran spun to face the front. “The pods take a bit out of you, so we need to put some nourishment back in you!” He continued to twist his mustache as he walked forward.

 

The paladins blinked after him before shrugging to each other and following him to the dining hall.

 

Lance enjoyed teasing Keith that the mice did more than him. When Keith brought up the bonding moment, Lance tried to ignore the way Keith's voice cracked with what sounded like hurt. He said he didn't remember.

 

He did.

 

It hurt to think about it. When he did, he saw a flash of purple and the same soft smile which was promptly followed by a searing pain behind his eyes.

 

He teased Hunk about Shay to hide the pain. When Shiro told them to man up, he saw Pidge flinch.

 

“No more secrets. I need to come clean.” Pidge took a breath. “I can't man up. I’m a girl. I mean I can man up because it’s just a figure of speech, I don’t actually have to be a man, I just have to be tough…”

 

Lance could tell that Pidge was rambling because they were nervous, so he decided to say something to calm them down. “What?!? You’re a girl?”

 

Everyone else said that they already knew and asked Lance how he could not have known.

 

“Well, I mean, Pidge has feminine attributes but that doesn’t really mean anything to me. One of my kid siblings, Viv, has feminine like qualities but xem doesn’t identify as female so…” Lance trailed off. He doesn’t talk about his family to this extent, especially to people he doesn’t really know. “Which reminds me,” he turned to Pidge, “what pronouns do you use?”

 

Pidge looked startled for a moment, like they hadn’t expected Lance to ask that. “Oh, uh...they pronouns are fine.”

 

Once they launched the ship, Lance kind of freaked out about that too, they headed off to the Balmera. But they encountered a distress signal on the way. Hunk wanted to skip over them and head straight for the Balmera, but Allura insisted on stopping.

 

They met Rolo, Nyma, and Beezer, a cyber unit, on a moon. Hunk kept trying to hurry the repairs along so they could leave. Nyma kept asking Lance about the castle and Voltron. He tried to not give too much information away, as these guys gave Lance a bad feeling, but there was something weird about how persistent Nyma was to get information. So he indulged her and gave her what she wanted. He ended up chained to a tree and his lion stolen because of it.

 

He had to rely on Keith to get his lion back, as the others couldn’t follow into the asteroid belt. Keith pretended that he couldn’t hear Lance when he asked Keith to come unchain him. For some reason, that hurt Lance a bit. Keith did eventually come and unchain Lance, and when Lance grumbled about how he should have flirted with Rolo instead, he saw Keith look startled out of the corner of his eye.

 

They returned Rolo, Nyma, and their now really damaged ship to the moon. After talking with the two for a few minutes, they headed back to the castle, and onwards to the Balmera.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really this is short and rushed but I will be trying to make the chapters better in the future.


	11. Rebirth of the Balmera

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Paladins head to the Balmera, hoping to make it in time to save the great beast

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's this? Another chapter a week after the other one? Am I possibly getting on a schedule?
> 
> I wouldn't count on it. I'm horrid at keeping schedules, sorry.

Imitating laser gun sounds with the others was fun. Keith, of course, was no fun and didn’t participate. Lance asked if the Balmarens would have a parade for them. When Keith video messaged Lance and scowled. Lance tried not to think how much better Keith looked when he was smiling.

 

Getting down to the Balmera was stupidly easy. If you didn’t count the lasers firing at them. When they finally managed to take down the base, they waited for the Galra to come to the surface. When none came, they began to worry. Lance had an odd sense that this seemed familiar.

 

_This is just like the time when we were training with-_ a sharp pain went through Lance’s head and he doubled over in his seat. He felt like he was going to vomit.

 

The pain quickly went away when Blue sent Lance a calming purr in his head.

 

“Thanks girl,” Lance mumbled.

 

He sat back up straight and tuned into what the others were saying just in time to hear Shiro tell Lance and Keith to go below and take out the hangar of fighter drones.

 

When the two got down to the hanger, Keith wanted to go in guns blazing. Lance pulled him back and told him to chill. Keith asked if Lance had a better idea, and he did in fact, have a better plan. Keith went to say his idea was dumb but paused and said that it was actually a pretty good idea.

 

Lance tried to ignore the heat in his face.

 

They climbed through the vents to just above the sentry at the controls, Lance quietly humming the Mission Impossible theme the whole time. After taking out the sentry, Lance tried to figure out how to close the doors, but it was all in Galra. He let Keith know and somehow Keith managed to close the bay doors.

 

Shiro told them about an ambush at the core and told them to get to the core over the comms. The two make their way to the core with a little delay.

 

When they reached the core, the doors slammed shut behind them.

 

Only one thought went through Lance’s head. _Well shit._

 

When Shay mentioned that Balmerans could communicate through the Balmera, Lance was impressed. That would have been really useful on-

 

On what? Lance couldn’t figure out where the thought was going.

 

Suddenly one of the doors was crushed under a pile of rocks, making a hole for them to get through.

 

Rax and the rest of Shay’s family appeared in the door.

 

“Rax!” Shay called out to her brother.

 

“We must make haste. We know a shortcut through the tunnels,” Rax told them.

 

They raced through the tunnels towards their speeders and onwards to their lions.

 

_“Paladins, hurry!”_ Allura’s voice came through their helmets. _“They’re taking off with the lions!”_

 

_‘My Paladin, hurry!’_

 

Lance faltered slightly. _'_ _Blue?’_

 

_‘Paladin, there is no time!’_

 

Lance continued to race towards Blue on his speeder. He slipped through an opening in the barrier and into his lion.

 

Blasting into the air, he saw the other four taking off towards the fighter jets. Taking them down was almost too easy. Until the warship fired its ion cannon at the Castle. They formed Voltron and slammed into the ship, making the cannon go to the side of the Castle. Allura fired the Castle’s blasters at the warship, causing it to explode.

 

The Paladins cheered as the warship burst into flames. But the Castle alarms were still blaring.

 

“What-” Lance looked at the object barreling towards the Balmera. “What the heck is _that?”_

 

A monster with a chest cannon burst out of the pod and immediately attacks Voltron. It managed to knock Voltron over and the lions split up. Unfortunately the monster just spread its arms and more laser cannons appeared. They tried taking the cannons out but the beast just shielded itself.

 

They had no choice but to retreat for now. When the Balmerans found out about the robeast, they lost hope of being free. Hunk tried to cheer Shay up but it was not of much use, they saw the Balmera breaking beneath their feet.

 

The Paladins launched their lions back into the air to distract the robeast so that Allura could get down to the Balmera to lead the Balmerans out.

 

The Balmerans refused to leave their dying home. They felt that if it was dying because of them, than they should stay until the very end. Allura begged them to leave and when they would not, she asked to speak to all Balmerans. Shay’s grandmother said there was no need to speak for Allura, as Allura had a unique power within herself.

 

The word quintessence flashed through Lance’s mind before it was gone. Allura began speaking and Lance heard her through his helmet.

 

_“Balmerans, this is Princess Allura. You don’t know me, but I am here to help. I know what it’s like to watch your home planet die. For I come from planet Altea, a planet that has long been destroyed by the Galra. I haven’t given up and you all have the same choice. You can make sure this never happens to another planet. I am sorry for what has happened here, but please do not let its dying be in vain. Honor the Balmera’s death by refusing to give up. Just as I have honored my family’s deaths. I fight on, for it’s what my brother would have done.”_

 

Blue got hit in the side with a laser because he was focused on Allura’s words. Lance grunted and apologized to Blue.

 

_‘Worry not, my paladin.’_

 

Hunk said something about his lion showing him what to do to defeat the robeast. They formed Voltron and a shoulder cannon appeared on their shoulder.

 

Lance sees Coran descend in a transport pod out of the corner of his eye before turning back to the robeast. Allura spoke of a ceremony and Lance started to worry.

 

“When your father performed the ceremony, it was on a much smaller scale.” Coran tried to get Allura to stop. “I beg you. To heal an entire planet, it could take more energy than even your brother possessed. You may not...live through it.”

 

What would they do if the princess died? Coran would be alone. Lance didn’t want that to happen.

 

_‘Blue,’_ Lance called out to her with his mind. _‘Blue, there must be something we can do to help.’_

 

_‘My paladin, focus on your energy. Send it to the Lion Princess.’_

 

Lion Princess? Lance resolved to ask Blue about it later. He closed his eyes and focused on his energy, the same energy in his and Blue’s bond. He pictured a sort of rope of energy between him and Blue, and tried to imagine another rope branching off from him towards Allura. Blue sent an encouraging rumble through Lance. He focused on sending more to Allura, trying to send as much as he could.

 

_‘My paladin…’_

 

The rope got bigger and Lance felt himself get lightheaded.

 

_‘My paladin!’_

 

Black spots danced in Lance’s vision as the rope continued to grow.

 

_‘ALORAN!’_ Blue roared in Lance’s head as Lance blacked out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lance's Altean name revealed! I've been really excited for this chapter because of this. I debated continuing the chapter until the end of the episode but decided not to and ended it here. Pretty good cliffhanger, right?
> 
> Hopefully I wan't disappear for over 6 months again. I'll try not to, I promise!


	12. Note

Um, hi??? So long time no see. Sorry about dropping off like that but I wanted this next chapter to be perfect and it's still not. This next chapter can go several different ways and it's not working out the way I planned so the chapter is still in the works.

Also with the drop of season 6 and A LOT of information, I'm reworking some of the plot so it may take a little bit longer to get this next one out.

I do apologize for the wait however and to make up for it the next few chapters will hopefully be longer ones.

\- Matag

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry if there are any misspelled words or random words thrown in. I'm writing on my phone and sometimes it autocorrects and I don't catch it.
> 
> Please point out any mistakes that are made as this is unbeta'd!!!


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